Philzuid

Fairy tales told to save one’s life. The Persian master storyteller Scheherazade succeeded in doing just that. With her thrilling tales from One Thousand and One Nights, she managed to prevent the paranoid ruler Shahryar from killing her each night. The Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was captivated by these life-affirming stories. He dedicated his greatest symphonic work, Scheherazade, to these exotic Arabian Nights. His lush music draws us into the world of Sinbad, Baghdad, princesses, and sultans. Under the baton of British conductor Alpesh Chauhan, these oriental orchestral dreams come to life once again. The young Alpesh Chauhan has a deep affection for Russian repertoire, and he is currently recording Tchaikovsky’s complete orchestral works for the Chandos label.

Russian full-blooded romance can also be heard in the music of Aleksandr Scriabin. In his twenties, Scriabin wrote his only Piano Concerto. A work full of ecstatic exhilaration, it is rarely heard in the concert hall. This early work is one of Scriabin’s most accessible compositions. The composer creates a concerto full of contemplation and self-reflection. Philzuid has invited the rising Belgian-Russian piano master Denis Kozhukhin for what is sure to be a memorable performance. In 2010, Kozhukhin won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels with convincing ease. Piano virtuoso Rachmaninov was an early fan of Scriabin’s intimate piano concerto. From Rachmaninov himself, we hear his symphonic poem The Rock. He dedicated the orchestral work to his good friend Rimsky-Korsakov. Rachmaninov based his orchestral fantasy on a story by Chekhov. On a stormy Christmas night, a young woman and an older man search for the meaning of life and love.