Following their first joint concert in May 2026, the Orchestre de Paris is once again welcoming the winner of the 2024 La Maestra Competition: Bar Avni will conduct a programme entirely rooted in the nineteenth century, with Midori as soloist.

A violinist with a wide-ranging repertoire (from Bach to contemporary music), discovered at a very young age by Zubin Mehta, Midori has a particular fondness for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. A deeply romantic yet deeply introspective work, in which virtuosity is never an end in itself, it features regularly in her concert programmes. Bar Avni complements this ‘jewel of the heart’ (in the words of the violinist Joseph Joachim) with two later works: Wagner’s ‘Siegfried-Idyll’, a symphonic poem that draws on several themes from the opera *Siegfried*, and Elgar’s *Enigma Variations*. Composed at the very end of the century, these are inspired by the composer’s family and friends. They are based on a theme that remains unknown, as the music heard in the first movement is merely the counterpoint to a melody that Elgar wished to keep secret.