大象传媒

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

The 大象传媒 Philharmonic with its Chief Guest Conductor Vassily Sinaisky, perform works by Dvorak, Haydn and Shostakovich in their final concert at The Bridgewater Hall this season.
Spinning wheels tend to herald trouble in fairy tales - just think of the princess condemned to sleep for 100 years. But that has nothing on the darkness of Erben's take on The Golden Spinning Wheel (imagine Cinderella's wicked stepmother with the morals and surgical skill of Hannibal Lecter), though, errant body parts aside, it does have a happy ending.

Pity the poor 18th-century trumpeter: the limitations of the natural trumpet made it a nightmare for players. So when Anton Weidinger came up with a new keyed instrument, it was enough of a breakthrough to tempt Haydn to write his Trumpet Concerto, a work that revels in the new possibilities of the instrument, and ones that hold no fears for virtuoso Alison Balsom, making a very welcome return to the orchestra.

Shostakovich is one of the greatest symphonists of recent times, and with his Fifth Symphony, it seems that audiences - and even Soviet officials - were in agreement, giving the piece a tumultuous ovation at its 1937 premiere. It marked a distinct new direction, an apparent new straightforwardness after he'd faced the wrath of officialdom for his opera "Lady Macbeth". But nothing is ever quite as it seems; what the authorities regarded as healthy plain-speaking can equally be heard as mockery. Is the grandiose end a great victory or a parody? It's your chance to decide!

Dvorak: The Golden Spinning Wheel
Haydn: Trumpet Concerto for trumpet and orchestra in E flat

8.10 Interval Music
Petroc Trelawny recommends recordings by tonight's soloist, Alison Balsom

Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 in D

大象传媒 Philharmonic
Vassily Sinaisky: conductor
Alison Balsom: trumpet.

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