Events

Bartók drew on Romanian ballads to create his own libretto for this tale of a father who raises his nine sons to care for very little besides his obsession, which is hunting deer. While out hunting, the sons are transformed into stags. The father pleads with them to return home, but their animal forms prevent them from exchanging the wilderness for the human world. In this mysterious folkloric tale, Bartók’s darkly lush music is filled with the magic of the night forest and the pagan energy of the hunt.

One of Chopin’s most famous works takes on new life in this arrangement by Glazunov, which was commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev for the 1909 season of the Ballets Russes. Better known as the “Military” polonaise, its bounding self-assurance is even more glorious with trumpets, horns and trombones sounding the fanfare motifs.

The so-called “little G minor” symphony is Mozart’s first symphony to win a constant place in the repertoire, thanks to its operatic sense of drama. In Mozart’s day, minor key symphonies were rare; this symphony breaks with tradition both in the choice of key and in its sense of intensely personal expression.

This gem is all that remains of an opera inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade that Ravel never completed. The overture gives the woodwinds free rein in sinuous, mysterious lines until the full orchestra enters to paint a glorious vision hinting at such marvels that it is no wonder the cruel Sultan Shahriyar could never bring himself to put an end to Scheherazade and her stories.

Rachmaninoff was inspired by the same theme as Lutoslawski, turning it into a large, ebullient work using his usual luxuriant orchestration. After a playful bustling introduction sketching the theme’s outlines, his 24 variations cover a tremendous range of moods from introspective to triumphantly romantic. The piano and the orchestra chase each other, reflect each other and support each other with inexhaustible invention. There’s plenty of room for piano fireworks, and Rachmaninoff even finds a way to weave in his favourite Dies Irae theme.

Resisting the atonal world of his contemporaries, Hindemith explored a neobaroque flavour with this work, which takes the form of a concerto grosso. The surging, muscular lines of the orchestra are set in counterpoint against florid solos from a trio of oboe, violin and bassoon