Philharmonic Hall Rousse

Every spring the Danube city of Ruse gives itself over to March Music Days, the international festival that has drawn soloists and orchestras to the town for more than half a century, and the philharmonic's hall sits at the centre of that fortnight. For the rest of the year the room belongs to the resident orchestra and its subscription season; Mendelssohn's Hebrides overture and Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik are among the works it has offered there, and visiting chamber players share the same stage. Ruse's musical appetite has always outrun its size — a river port sustaining an opera house, a philharmonic and an international festival is not a common thing in a town of its scale.