RUSSIAN CLASSICS

Friday 28 May 2010 at 7.30pm

Cheltenham Town Hall 01242 227979

Alexander Vedernikov  conductor
Steven Osborne  piano

Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival Overture 16'
Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2 20'
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 45'

Music director of Moscow's legendary Bolshoi Theatre since 2001, Alexander Vedernikov makes his CBSO debut with a trio of very different Russian masterpieces. Rimsky's colourful overture celebrates the Russian Orthodox Easter in a riot of bells and orchestral brilliance, while Prokofiev's superb post-war symphony strikes a more serious mood in music of great intensity and power. His sometime friend Shostakovich is also famous for his serious symphonies, but this tuneful piano concerto finds him in a lighter mood, and is played for us by the versatile Scottish pianist who has entertained CBSO audiences in music from Mozart to Messiaen.