The 2026-2027 artistic period starts with the glory corresponding to an opening concert in which the Athens State Orchestra, under the baton of its artistic director, Lukas Karytinos, and in collaboration with two internationally renown, young and repeatedly distinguished soloists, presents important symphonic works of the 19th and the 20th century. What all of such works have in common is that their composers chose to align with their times’ avant-garde: Beethoven consciously changed the tide of music history in every single key; young Saint-Saëns followed Liszt’s and Wagner’s aesthetic ideals, while Shostakovich expressed the 20th century’s outbreaks and tragedies so vividly as few others did.