Saturday, 10th February 2018, 7.30pm, at the Ruddock Performing Arts Centre.
- Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain
- Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia
- Rachmaninov’s Isle of the Dead
- Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony ‘Pathétique’
Conductor: Jon Hargreaves
South Birmingham Sinfonia takes you on a trip to Russia in their Febrary 2018 concert, combining a number of very popular and well known works.
Mussorgsky’s “Night of the Bare Mountain” described the frantic dances and celebrations and sabbath of the Witches, on the midsummer Kupala Night (analogous to our Hallowe’en) and the serenity of the morning that follows.
Rachmaninov’s tone poem “The Isle of the Dead” continues this darker theme, and describes a boat voyage to the “isle of the dead” depicted in an image by Arnold Böcklin.
Borodin’s tone poem, “In the Steppes of Central Asia” is a rather lighter description of a camel train in the Caucasus and features well loved tunes that are much heard both in-context and out-of context.
The concert finishes with Tchaikovsky’s last and greatest symphony, the “Pathétique”, a musical statement of tragic farewell.