Spectacular Six

Tuesday 1 October  7.30pm

John Storgårds           conductor
Jennifer Pike               violin
Jonathan Scott           organ

Stravinsky                   Petrushka (1911 version)
Saint-Saëns                 Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
Ravel                           Tzigane
Saint-Saëns                 Symphony No. 3 ‘Organ’

Our season opener throws a bright spotlight on orchestral power, bringing together a classic ballet score, a stunning pair of showpieces for violin, and a tour de force for orchestra and organ. Stravinsky’s Petrushka was one of the trio of great Ballet scores that established his reputation at the beginning of the twentieth century. Set at the St Petersburg Shrovetide Fair it tells the tale of its ill-fated puppet hero through some of the composer’s most evocative and moving music – practically a concerto for orchestra with a virtuoso piano part. The piano features prominently, too, in Saint-Saëns’ ever popular Third Symphony, this time with two pianists racing around the exhilarating finale before the organ adds some spine-tingling grandeur into the mix.

British violinist Jennifer Pike provides the sparkle at the heart of the concert with two pieces written especially for celebrated virtuosi of the day. It was the teenage sensation, Pablo de Sarasate who inspired Saint-Saëns to write his Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, whose dancing rhythms and bold colours reflected the soloist’s Spanish Heritage. Here they have the perfect complement in the Gypsy inflections of Ravel’s Tzigane, written for the memorably-named Hungarian, Jelly d’Arányi, and full of show-stopping, improvisatory fireworks.

Thursday 24 October 7.30pm

Andrew Manze                       conductor
Mark Bebbington                   piano
Cantamus Girls Choir

Walton                                    Spitfire Music and Battle in the Air from Battle of Britain
Bliss                                         Piano Concerto
Holst                                       The Planets

This colourful all-English programme takes off with William Walton’s music for the climactic aerial duel of Guy Hamilton’s classic 1969 movie. Walton was originally booked to compose the entire film score before MGM’s studio executives abruptly side-lined him in favour of Ron Goodwin. Walton’s battle scene was the only section that remained of his music but it’s also the film’s most memorable moment, capturing the altitudinous, rapid-firing action with breathless energy. Walton’s near contemporary, Sir Arthur Bliss, wrote his commanding Piano Concerto in 1939 for the New York World’s Fair. Appealing directly to American optimism, Bliss matched rhythmic drive with Romantic expression, setting a stiff test for the soloist whilst ensuring an exhilarating ride for the audience.

Also written during a time of conflict, Gustav Holst’s The Planets shares some of Bliss’s martial qualities, not least in the mechanistic ferocity of Mars, the Bringer of War. Holst’s main inspiration, though, was his interest in astrology which vividly colours each planet, from the buoyant spirits of Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, to the ethereal chill of Neptune, the Mystic. Over a century after its first performance, it remains one of the most brilliantly original works for orchestra, making spectacular use of its huge orchestral forces.

Tuesday 28 January 7.00pm

Karina Canellakis        conductor
Benjamin Grosvenor  piano

Sibelius                          En Saga
Mozart                           Piano Concerto No. 21
Tchaikovsky                 Symphony No. 4

An inspirational game-changer, Karina Canellakis has blazed a trail for female conductors since winning the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2016, being the first woman to conduct the First Night of the BBC Proms in 2019 and becoming the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2020. She begins her first visit to Nottingham in this role with Sibelius’s En Saga. Although he described it as the ‘expression of a state of mind’ rather than a mythical adventure, there’s no shortage of action in this powerful ‘psycho-drama’. There’s an altogether more serene mood in Mozart’s most popular Piano Concerto, particularly in the ethereal central movement which gained the nickname, the ‘dream andante.’ It’s performed here by the exceptional British pianist, Benjamin Grosvenor, a perfect match for Mozart’s light-touch lyricism.

Bringing the concert to an emphatic close is Tchaikovsky’s fiery Fourth Symphony. Emerging from the wreckage of his short-lived marriage, it bares its soul in a maelstrom of emotions, opening up with an arresting fanfare signalling the malign forces of fate. But there’s also heartfelt poignancy and some delightfully deft play between the separate sections of the orchestra before it all ends exuberantly with a whirling folk dance finale.

Tuesday 11 February 7.30pm

Tomáš Brauner           conductor
Gabriela Montero      piano

Dvořák                        The Noonday Witch
Prokofiev                    Piano Concerto No. 3
Shostakovich              Symphony No. 5

Amongst Dvořák’s greatest achievements were his Symphonic Poems, vivid musical renderings of gripping, often gruesome folk tales. The Noonday Witch is a memorable example: a cautionary tale of a disobedient child and the menacing spirit that comes to punish it. Any terrors that exist in Prokofiev’s effervescent Third Piano Concerto surround the stern challenge it makes to the pianist’s technique and stamina. Long regarded as one of the great twentieth-century concertos, it’s passionate and spontaneous by turns, qualities personified by our soloist, the sensational Venezuelan pianist, Gabriela Montero.

Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony was an adept piece of political escapology at the point when his career, and even his life, was in danger following Stalin’s denouncement of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Ironically styled by the composer as a “Soviet artist’s response to justified criticism” the symphony not only placated his political masters but also spoke deeply to a nation living in fear. Powerful, poignant and shot through with Shostakovich’s biting satire, it’s one of the most gripping of modern masterpieces – no wonder its first audience applauded it for half an hour.

Thursday 27 March 7.30pm

Vasily Petrenko          conductor
Esther Yoo                  violin

Tchaikovsky               Fantasy Overture: Romeo and Juliet
Bruch                          Violin Concerto No. 1
Prokofiev                    Symphony No. 5

Vasily Petrenko has made a habit of spine-tingling, sell-out performances in Nottingham and this one will be no exception, as he’s joined by the brilliant American violinist Esther Yoo for a programme that’s high on drama and passion. The youngest winner of the Jean Sibelius Violin Competition and former BBC New Generation Artist has been described as ‘the model of a violin soloist in the modern age’ (The Strad) and her highly expressive playing is tailor-made for Bruch’s ripely Romantic and virtuosic First Violin Concerto.

Two Russian classics from very different worlds complete the programme, beginning with Tchaikovsky’s famous Fantasy Overture, Romeo and Juliet. The soaring lyricism of its central love theme remains one of classical music’s best-loved moments, perfectly capturing the tenderness of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers, set against the fierce rivalry of their families. Although it was premiered in wartime Moscow in 1945, Prokofiev described his 5th Symphony as ‘a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit.’ Acclaimed in both Russia and the West at its first performances this taut masterpiece remains his most popular symphony, its edgy high spirits recalling the balletic energy of his own version of Romeo and Juliet.

Tuesday 3 June 7.30pm

Kahchun Wong           conductor
Nardus Williams         soprano
Susan Bickley              mezzo soprano
Nicky Spence              tenor
William Thomas         bass    
Hallé Choir

Wagner                       Overture: Tannhäuser
Beethoven                  Symphony No. 9 ‘Choral’

Inspired by two German legends, Wagner made the medieval singer and poet, Tannhäuser, the hero of his 1845 opera, a deep meditation on the sacred and the profane and love’s redemptive power. Its grand overture provides a fitting prelude to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, in which song becomes a unifying force for humanity.

One of the most heart-warming stories of Beethoven’s ground-breaking masterpiece is that one of the soloists at its premiere in 1824 had to turn the deaf composer around so that he could witness the tumultuous applause. Few there could have doubted the significance of the event. Visionary in scope, extreme in its gestures and technically daunting (French horn players still have nightmares about one notorious solo), it tears at the boundaries of the classical symphony, nowhere more so than in the choral finale that proclaims the words of Schiller’s Ode to Joy. One of the most ecstatic moments in musical history, it’s an emphatic conclusion to our season.