The 72nd Ljubljana Festival will be closed by the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra under Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit, the 103rd recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal (inaugurated in 1870 and awarded for the most outstanding musicianship). After opening the concert with the Pelléas et Mélisande  suite, a symphonic masterpiece by the proto-Impressionist Gabriel Fauré, Dutoit will be joined onstage by the  Martha Argerich, with whom he previously appeared at the 69th Ljubljana Festival in 2021. The Argentine pianist especially shines with her interpretations of the virtuoso piano literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. Her extensive repertoire ranges from Johann Sebastian Bach and Frédéric Chopin to Béla Bartók and Olivier Messiaen. She will perform Maurice Ravel’s ebullient Piano Concerto in G major,  which incorporates the influences of jazz and Basque folk music. The concert will end with Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”.  One of Dvořák’s most popular works, inspired by the melodies of Native American music and African-American spirituals, it was composed in the United States while Dvořák was director of the National Conservatory of Music of America.