Orchestral fireworks by Chin and Stravinsky

Conductor Kent Nagano and young Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev guarantee a concert full of striking colors.

The firebird: Stravinsky's breakthrough
Actually, Stravinsky was third choice when Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes, approached him in late 1909 for a ballet on Russian fairy tales. Only when the composers Cherepnin and Lyadov had kindly thanked him was the young Igor polled. It turned out to be a golden opportunity. When The Firebird premiered more than six months later, the virtuoso orchestrated score marked the final breakthrough with Parisian audiences for both the composer and the ballet company.

Rachmaninov and Chin
Of the many compositions that found their inspiration in Paganini's 24th Capriccio, Rachmaninov's Paganini Variations are undoubtedly among the most beloved. The formal blueprint alone is a marvel. The composer crosses variation series with concerto form into a rhapsody in which, in addition to Paganini's theme, the Dies irae motif haunts. Kent Nagano opens the concert with a new, undoubtedly colorful work by composer in focus Unsuk Chin, of which at the time of writing only the title is known: Alaraph "Ritus des Herzschlags.