Archived performance
About this performance
Program
Berlioz King Lear Overture
Bruch Violin Concerto No.1
Borodin Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances
Featuring
Sir Andrew Davis conductor
Lu Siqing violin
The concert
The exhilarating drive of the dances from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor has thrilled listeners for more than a hundred years, and not just in the concert hall. This music’s popularity over several generations in movies, computer games, TV commercials and pop songs, not to mention the delightful musical Kismet, testifies to Borodin’s tuneful genius. Even without knowing the context of its appearance as a scene-stealing fantasy of exotic splendour within its operatic original, the Dances’ delicious vitality and rich orchestral colour makes the heart rush and the spine tingle.
A few years younger than Borodin, Max Bruch was thoroughly schooled in the German tradition through the aesthetic line of Mendelssohn and Brahms. His first concerto is a bravura showpiece for violinists that has never waned in popularity with audiences or performers.
Running time
1 hour, no interval
Pictured: Lu Siqing
Please note that the MSO Chorus will not be performing in this performance as previously advertised.
