Pictures at an Exhibition

Programme

GRAMMY® Award-winning American violinist Gil Shaham joins the Philharmonia in a programme full of vivid orchestral colour, opening with Borodin’s rousing Polovtsian Dances.  

Lyrical, long-breathed melodies, perfectly suited to Shaham’s warm tone, fill the first two movements of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto. But the violin’s singing lines are tinged with darkness, and give way to a tumultuous, stumbling dance in the finale. 

Mussorgsky’s best-loved work crowns this evening’s programme. The stately ‘Promenade’ theme leads us around an actual exhibition by the composer’s friend Viktor Hartmann, encompassing characters from folklore, views of Paris, Limoges, and Rome, and the delightful ‘Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks’.

Unfortunately, Stanislav Kochanovsky is unable to travel to the UK for the concert, owing to delays with visa processing. We are very grateful to Eivind Gullberg Jensen for stepping in at short notice. He will conduct Borodin’s Polovstian Dances from Prince Igor in place of Shostakovich’s October which was originally advertised.