Chester Philharmonic Orchestra

Overture Kikimora      Liadov

Violin Concerto No 1    Shostakovich

Scheherazade                  Rimsky-Korsakov

Of the three composers you will hear this evening , two were born in St Petersburg and the third was a professor at the St Petersburg Conservatoire. As if that were not enough coincidence, our soloist is from…St Petersburg too and what better choice of music to demonstrate the talent from that city and illustrate our theme of ”Fable and Fantasy” than  Liadov’s overture Kikimora  and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. “Kikimora” is another of these Slavic spirits, similar in some ways, to Baba Yaga found in Pictures at an Exhibition. She inhabits the cellar, or sometimes lives behind the stove, or under floorboards and is perhaps the scariest of all Slavic household spirits. Like Baba Yaga she also has chicken like features including a beak and chicken’s legs. (Listen for the ‘chicken’ played on the xylophone). Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto was written in 1947/48 when the Soviet authorities had banned his music and it received its first performance in 1955. Watch out for Shostakovich’s favourite ‘DSCH’ motif. The soloist this evening, Savva  Zverev the young Russian from St Petersburg is currently studying  at the RNCM in Manchester.  At the age of 7 he entered the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatoire and has performed throughout Europe and the USA. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade is based on the storyteller of the tale from one thousand and one nights. Listen to Sinbad’s voyages, a shipwreck and the tale of the Prince and Princess. Fable and Fantasy indeed