This is a concert that focuses on the explosion of color that occurred when 19th Century Composers poured Russian Folk music and the orchestra into the musical melting pot. The effects were far reaching. Rimsky Korsakov influenced so many others who came after with the brilliance of his orchestration and the vibrancy of his music. Arutiunian’s music blends the music of his Armenian homeland into this heady mix of Russian colour – an approach he inherited from Khatchaturian a generation earlier.

The opening of the finale of Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony is the ultimate big bang moment in the concert hall. A quiet conclusion to the pizzicato dominated 3rd movement is shattered (along with any slumbering audience members) by the explosion that launches the 4th.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Overture on Russian Themes

Alexander Arutiunian
Trumpet Concerto

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Finale from ‘Symphony No.4’, Op.36