Season Opening

Tom Woods Conductor
Alexander Gavryluk piano

Revueltas Sensemaya
Tchaikovsky Piano Concert No.1
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Saturday 25th February, 7.30pm
Aurora Centre

Silvestre Revueltas’s blighted life (an alcoholic, he died at 40) didn’t prevent him from becoming one of the leading Mexican composers of his generation. His sinewy, rhythmic and vibrant music draws on the colours and rhythms of Mexico. Sensemaya: Chant for the killing of the snake is the best known of his symphonic poems. Based on a poem by the Cuban poet Nicolas Guillen it was originally composed for a small orchestra, Revueltas later expanded it into a full scale orchestral setting to heighten the composition’s sense of drama and rhythmic power. Hypnotic, highly textured, it evokes the darkness of a tropical night, the sound of drums and chanting voices with extraordinary flair.

Ask anyone to hum or whistle a classical work and the chances are that they will perform the opening bars of what is arguably the world’s most famous and familiar piano concerto. But familiarity should not breed contempt, especially for Tchaikovsky’s brilliant teaming of piano and orchestra. Composed between 1874 and 1875 (and later revised in 1879 and 1888), it’s a work of sweeping grandeur, lyric poignancy and virility. Here’s Tchaikovsky at his creative best. Ukrainian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk will fill the hall with this tour de force in what is the orchestra’s opening concert for the 2012 season. Gavrylyuk’s blinding virtuosity and deep musicality is why he has been described by many as one of the most phenomenal and extraordinary talent’s of the new generation of artists.

Like Silvestre Revueltas, Modest Mussorgsky was a flawed genius, a consummate composer whose chronic alcoholism and general dissipation didn’t prevent him from composing extraordinary music. Pictures At An Exhibition was originally composed for the piano in 1874. The series of pieces, inspired by a visit to an exhibition of drawings and watercolours by the artist and architect Viktor Hartmann. Linked by movements marked Promenade, it is an unforgettable musical encounter with an artist’s imagination and the composer’s genius.