大象传媒

Live from the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

The 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra's Sibelius cycle continues with Symphony No 4 under the Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits. They are joined by Georgian pianist Katia Buniatishvili for Prokofiev's virtuosic First Piano Concerto. Stravinsky's brightly coloured ballet Petrushka completes the programme.

Sibelius's stark, elemental Fourth Symphony was inspired in part by the landscape of Northern Karelia and composed at a time when the calm of the composer's life at his lakeside home Ainola was threatened by ill-health. Prokofiev described his Piano Concerto No 1 as his "first more or less mature composition" and the composer's own virtuoso performance at the keyboard at the premiere was sufficient to win him the coveted Rubinstein prize at the St Petersburg Conservatory. Stravinsky's puppet ballet, written to a commission from the great ballet impressario Sergei Diaghilev, tells of the life, death and afterlife of the Russian clown Petrushka in spectacular orchestral technicolour. The 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra is conducted by the star Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits, making his debut with the orchestra.

Sibelius: Symphony No 4 in A minor

Khatia Buniatishvili (piano)
大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra
Kirill Karabits (conductor).