Philharmonia Orchestra: Maazel and Trifonov

Maestro Maazel conducts an all-Russian programme. Stravinsky's The Firebird, Rachmaninov's The Rock, Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy and Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto with pianist Daniil Trifonov.



A barnstorming programme of Russian masterworks, forged from the burning embers of the Romantic period by four composers who for the most part couldn't stand the sight of each other.



Stravinsky's Firebird ballet takes Borodin's piquant orientalisms and Rimsky-Korsakov's exotic orchestration to the outer reaches, while Rachmaninov's The Rock feeds directly from the music of his most devoted admirer - Tchaikovsky. Scriabin appears to be sowing the seeds of his own musical destruction in the apocalyptic eruptions of his Poem of Ecstasy, while Prokofiev confirms his status as the 'bad boy' of Russian music with a pianistic whirlwind of super-heated virtuosity.