A bewitching and exhilarating concert that glows in the sun and ends in the tempests of hell.
Three Russians make for a richly coloured and exhilarating concert. Liadov's jewel-like miniature has all the ingredients of the best Russian fairytales: it's haunting, mysterious and malevolent, and it's bewitching to the ear!
The irresistible melodies of Rachmaninoff's best-loved piano concerto sound as if they could be pop songs - and in fact several of them are.
The program ends with the whirling passion of Tchaikovsky's symphonic fantasia after Dante - a story of illicit love, murder and the tempests of hell.
And for his Sydney Symphony debut, Thomas Sanderling has chosen music by Peter Sculthorpe: the extrovert sounds, flowing melodies and entrancing rhythms of Sun Song.
LIADOV Kikimora
RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.2
SCULTHORPE Sun Song (1984)
TCHAIKOVSKY Francesca da Rimini
Thomas Sanderling conductor
Alexander Gavrylyuk piano
AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 - LIADOV Kikimora
L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Ernest Ansermet
DECCA 480 0038
Track 2 - RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No.2: III Allegretto scherzando
Alicia de Larrocha (piano) with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit
DECCA ELOQUENCE 476 7701
Track 3 - SCULTHORPE Sun Song
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Porcelijn
ABC CLASSICS (Under Capricorn) 454 5052
Track 4 - TCHAIKOVSKY Francesca da Rimini, Op.32
Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 477 8699
Audio kindly supplied by Silver Partner Universal Music