Järvi conducts Stravinsky’s The Firebird

Two of Stravinsky’s thrilling ballet scores frame a brilliant new cello concerto.

“Music has to have everything – overwhelming power, illuminating light, endless gentleness and the deepest darkness… everything that makes us human” says Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür. And all these things combine to potent effect in his Cello Concerto No. 2. Inspired by a poem by Federico García Lorca, it was written for tonight’s soloist Nicolas Altstaedt.

Stravinsky’s collaboration with the impresario Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes gave birth to some of the defining music of the early 20th century. Petrushka tells of three puppets brought to life by the bewitching flute melody of the Magician. Petrushka loves the Ballerina, but she only has eyes for the dashing Moor…

The Firebird is based on stories from Russian folklore, with a colourful cast including a huntsman prince, a magical bird, an evil monster and thirteen enchanted princesses. It’s the perfect showcase for Stravinsky’s masterful orchestration skills and harmonic and rhythmic originality. “Mark him well,” said Diaghilev when he first worked with the young Stravinsky, “he is a man on the eve of celebrity.”