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Details
Albert Hall
N Circus Street
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
NG1 5AA
England
Programme
Igor Stravinsky – The Firebird, ballet
Benjamin Britten – Piano Concerto
Igor Stravinsky – Concerto for Piano and Wind instruments (1924)
Sergey Prokofiev – Piano Concerto no.3 in C major, Op.26
Performers
Anna Fedorova – piano
Benjamin Powell – piano
Mark Heron – Conductor
Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra
Programme Note
The first work by Serge Prokofiev is his third piano concerto, full of memorable tunes and brilliantly orchestrated, this evening played by young Ukranian pianist Anna Fedorova.
Benjamin Britten was also a fine pianist and his only piano concerto was written in the 1930s, an early work later overshadowed by his choral and vocal music. The concerto has great charm and interest, with a young man’s optimistic view of the world shining through. Benjamin Powell a young pianist now living in Derbyshire is our pianist for the Britten concerto and for the Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments.
This is a work written after Stravinsky had emigrated from Russia to Paris where he became known as a pianist as well as composer. It was written for his own use in a more classical style than the Russian style of the Rite of Spring. Stravinsky performed it more than forty times in the five years following the premiere. Only double basses join the wind instruments, including brass and percussion, which was an unusual combination at the time.
The programme is completed by Stravinsky’s first great ballet score The Firebird, in which we can still hear Rimsky-Korsakov’s influence, but also the germs of the more radical music that was to emerge in the next few years.
