Søndergård conducts Ruders, Shostakovich and Strauss

23 Nov 2017, Barbican, London

19:30 Thu 23 Nov 2017 Next Event

19:30 Thu 23 Nov 2017 Barbican, London

Orchestral virtuosity from Poul Ruders and solo virtuosity from Shostakovich prepare the way for Richard Strauss’s magnificent tone-poem.

Programme

- - Poul Ruders
  - Concerto in Pieces 'Purcell Variations'
- - Dmitry Shostakovich
  - Concerto for piano, trumpet and strings (Piano Concerto No. 1)
- - Richard Strauss
  - Also sprach Zarathustra

Performers

Thomas Søndergård
conductor
conductor
Behzod Abduraimov
piano
piano
Alan Thomas
trumpet
trumpet
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Composers

Concert Information

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey may have propelled Strauss’s tone-poem into the stratosphere, but there’s another 35 minutes of glorious orchestral writing to discover once past the shattering evocation of a sunrise. And late-romantic virtuosity is balanced by the witty virtuosity of the programme’s opener, Poul Ruders’ Concerto in Pieces, a BBC commission from 1995 prompted by the tercentenary of Purcell’s death and the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Britten’s Young Person’s Guide (based on a Purcell theme). Ruders writes for the orchestra with astonishing confidence and delight. In between, BBC Symphony Orchestra Principal Trumpet Alan Thomas and the young Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov give us Shostakovich’s sparkling First Piano Concerto from 1933.