Temirkanov conducts Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky

Yuri Temirkanov (conductor)
Sayaka Shoji (violin)

TCHAIKOVSKY Francesca da Rimini
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
MUSSORGSKY (arr. RAVEL) Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition was written as a tribute to the works of the painter-architect Victor Hartmann. Mussorgsky composed a series of piano pieces that encapsulated the moods of Hartmann’s water colours. Published and arranged for orchestra after the composer’s own death, the suite displays a wide range of moods, from the sinister melancholy of Gnomus to the grand triumphalism of The Great Gate of Kiev. Each piece carries a pictorial quality that brilliantly evokes the decadence and disparity of 19th Century Russia, (albeit orchestrated by the French Ravel). Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini opens the concert; a richly passionate and frantic piece that perfectly sets the tone for an evening of highly evocative music.