Phillip Ellis conducts the Salomon Orchestra for the final concert in their Music for Stage and Screen series.
Mussorgsky’s Dawn on the Moscow River was intended as the prelude to his final opera, Khovanshchina, and is a prime example of Mussorgsky’s Russian Folk style. The orchestration was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov in 1886.
Prokofieff’s Queen of Spades was written as the score for a film by Mikhail Romm, intended for the 100th anniversary of Pushkin’s death, but never completed. English Composer Michael Berkely created a ballet – RUSHES – from Prokofieff’s music for the Royal ballet in 2008, and subsequently published the Orchestral suite played in this concert.
Stravinsky’s Firebird was commissioned by Diaghilev for his Ballet Russes, and was premiered in Paris in 1910. An instant hit, it catapulted Stravinsky to international fame, and lead to the subsequent Diaghilev collaborations Petrushka (1911) and the riot-inducing Rite of Spring (1912).
