Spectacular Six

Vasily Petrenko           conductor
Pavel Kolesnikov         piano

Liadov                            Baba Yaga
Tchaikovsky                 Piano Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninov               Symphony No. 2

We’ve a dream team for this welcome return visit from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.  Always a popular visitor in Nottingham, Vasily Petrenko has been doing great things with the orchestra since he became its Music Director in 2021 and his performances of Russian repertoire have become a benchmark within the classical world. He’s joined by the eloquent Siberian pianist, Pavel Kolesnikov, for Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, whose epic opening sets the scene for a titanic contest between soloist and orchestra.

Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony was a major personal achievement given the mauling his first had received, but he was in a very positive mood when he wrote it, with a settled home life and space to think whilst on a retreat in Dresden. The longest of his symphonic works, it has drama and passion to match its epic span. At its heart is one of the most rapt slow movements ever heard, so beautiful that it even found its way into a hit song by 1970s pop star, Eric Carmen. But any excessive sentiment is banished by a wildly inventive scherzo and the exhilarating, headlong rush of the finale.

Chloé van Soeterstède            conductor
Bruno Philippe                          cello

Chabrier                                      Suite Pastorale
Saint-Saëns                                Cello Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninov                            Symphonic Dances

Two elegant French composers begin this concert by the Hallé. Emmanuel Chabrier was once described as a ‘a man of exquisite gentleness and sudden exuberance’ and both are abundantly evident in his Suite Pastorale, which displays a great talent for crafting catchy ear worms. A composer of great longevity as well as prodigious talent, Saint-Saëns started life as a radical and ended it as a rather grumpy reactionary, at odds with the new musical world forming itself around Stravinsky and his peers. But in 1872, when he wrote his First Cello Concerto, Saint-Saëns was in modernist mode, playing daringly with the concerto form whilst still playing to his strengths as a gifted melodist. The supremely talented French cellist Bruno Philippe joins his French compatriot Chloé van Soeterstède for this compact classic.

Completing our colourful tunefest is Rachmaninov’s 1940 Symphonic Dances. This turned out to be his swansong, as he lived out his final years in New York, but what a final statement it was! Written especially with the lustrous sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra in mind, it remains one of the greatest orchestral showpieces ever written: dramatic, dashing and full of unforgettable tunes recalling his Russian homeland.

Sir Mark Elder              conductor

New Work                    Work for brass and percussion
Debussy                        Rondes de Printemps
Strauss                           An Alpine Symphony

Any concert by the world’s greatest orchestra of teenagers is an event – with 160 of the nation’s most talented young musicians cramming the stage, how couldn’t it be? But this concert goes further still, offering a spectacular journey through the natural world focused on Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony. It’s a vast tone poem depicting the ascent and descent of a mountain; in his words, no less than an act of ‘worship of eternal, magnificent nature’. By any standards it’s an extravagantly scaled piece, featuring a huge orchestra with offstage brass and a massive percussion section including wind machine. Having such forces at his command enables Strauss to capture every detail of the journey with photorealistic immediacy and, of course, to deliver its awe-inspiring moments – sunrise, the view from the summit, and a cataclysmic storm – with unforgettable power. Free for teens: All 13-19s go free.

Sir Mark Elder conductor

Bruckner          Symphony No. 8 (Haas edition)

Sir Mark Elder is a master of expansive repertoire: Wagner’s operas, Elgar’s Oratorios, Mahler’s symphonies – they’ve been given countless unforgettable performances by him. This concert offers a rare opportunity, in his final year as the Hallé’s Music Director, to experience him conducting one of the biggest and most thrilling symphonies of them all, Bruckner’s mighty Eighth.

Bruckner was often wracked with self-doubt but the success of his Seventh Symphony in his 60th year emboldened him to embark on his most ambitious symphony. Fellow composer Hugo Wolf praised it as ‘the creation of a giant, surpassing in spiritual dimension and magnitude all the other symphonies of the master’ and when you hear the Eighth live you’ll see what he meant. To the massive organ sonorities for which he was famous, he added the deep roar of a large brass section turbocharged by four Wagner tubas. The result is a uniquely powerful, awe-inspiring sound: the hushed expectancy of the opening setting the scene for an eighty-minute journey that delivers thrills at every turn, from unstoppable juggernaut rhythms to great arcs of melody and jaw-dropping climaxes that would overwhelm even Wagner’s gods.

Stanislav Kochanovsky            conductor
Maria Ioudenitch                     violin

Mussorgsky                               Prelude to Khovanshchina
Shostakovich                            Violin Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky                              Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’

This welcome return from the acclaimed Dresden Philharmonic brings with it a trio of powerful and atmospheric Russian classics. The brutal realpolitik of Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera Khovanshchina is barely glimpsed in its deceptively peaceful Prelude, whilst the tension is palpable in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto of 1948, performed here by the much garlanded Russian-American virtuoso, Maria Ioudenitch. Written in defiance of Stalin’s disapproval – and not actually premiered until after the dictator’s death – this thrilling piece of artistic resistance combines searing expression with a wry sense of humour.

Tchaikovsky described his fateful Sixth Symphony as “the best thing I ever composed or shall compose”, but his untimely end, only days after its premiere, has shrouded it in speculation and added extra poignancy to its hard-driven emotions. Veering from hushed tenderness to explosive power the ‘Pathétique’ remains the ultimate Romantic rollercoaster – even grand opera couldn’t deliver more tears than the symphony’s shattering finale.

Sir Mark Elder              conductor
Boris Giltburg              piano

Rachmaninov               Piano Concerto No. 1
Mahler                           Symphony No. 5

After nearly a quarter of a century leading the Hallé, Sir Mark Elder steps down as its Music Director, having revitalised the orchestra and taken it into the international top tier. His commitment to the Nottingham residency, and obvious affection for the Royal Concert Hall, has been at the heart of the orchestra’s popularity here.

A farewell concert demands a stellar soloist and with Boris Giltburg performing Rachmaninov’s First Piano concerto, sparks will surely fly. The young composer modelled it on Grieg’s famous concerto and high spirits run free throughout, with sprung rhythms reflecting its impetuous spirit. By contrast, the ominous trumpet call that begins Mahler’s titanic Fifth Symphony appears at first to herald a nerve-shredding encounter with fate. And yet this dramatic symphony was written in the afterglow of his meeting the love of his life, Alma Schindler, and contains some of his most tender music. Its powerful emotional extremes – from bullying double basses and explosive brass to the serene love song at the symphony’s heart – ensure an exhilarating ride, and the perfect send-off for a conductor who’s enthralled Nottingham audiences for two decades.