Russian Concerts

A spring series of stunning Russian piano concerts located in the beautiful Grand Entrance Hall of Brunel Museum. Set in an atmospheric, underground tunnel shaft, almost like an underground cathedral, this is a totally unique experience. 

6TH APRIL SCHUMANN, TCHAIKOVSKY, RIMSKY KORSAKOV

Arshak Kuzikyan bass, Aleksey Demchenko piano.

Schumann. Frauenliebe und leben Op.24

A Woman’s Love and Life: a poem cycle by Adelbert von Chamisso. Composed in 1840, his “year of song”. Eight poems tell the story from first meeting to marriage to death

Schumann Fantasiestücke, Op. 12

Eight pieces for piano, written in 1837, inspired by Hoffmann and dedicated to Anna Robena Laidlaw, a Scottish pianist with whom Schumann had become good friends.Galina and Alexey:

Tchaikovsky Iolanta’s ariozo from Iolanta Op. 69

The last opera he composed. Libretto by the composer’s brother Modest Tchaikovsky is based on the Danish play King René’s Daughter by Henrik Hertz. The opera received its premiere December 1892 in Saint Petersburg.
Rimsky-Korsakov Melting scene from “Snow Maiden”

subtitle: A Spring Fairy Tale. Snegúrochka–Vesennyaya Skazka) is an opera in four acts first performed Saint Petersburg 1882. The composer’s own favorite work. The Snow Maiden learns to love and brings about the arrival of summer.

Rimsky-Korsakov Mad scene from “Tsar’s Bride”

Marfa is chosen as wife for the Ivan the Terrible, but she loves Lïkov whom Ivan executes and Marfa goes mad.

4TH MAY RACHMANINOV, MUSSORGSKY, TCHAIKOVSKY

Arshak Kuzikyan bass, Aleksei Demchenko piano

Rachmaninov – All the gipsy camp is sleeping from Aleko his first opera. Danchenko’s libretto is an adaptation of The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin and first performed in Moscow 1892. A story of love, hate revenge and abandonment.

Tchaikovsky – I bless you, Forests

Setting of a poem by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Rachmaninoff- Sing not to me, beautiful maiden

Poem by Pushkin

Mussorgsky – Song of the flea

Sviridov – Weathercock from Peterburg, a Vocal poem

“Petersburg, a vocal poem” composed for a great singer Hvorostovsky by the distinguished Russian composer Georgi Sviridov (1915-1998), texts, by 20th century poet Alexandr Blok.

Songs by Babajanyan

Rachmaninov – Preludes from op. 23 & 32

Considered to be among Rachmaninov’s best works for solo piano.

1ST JUNE SCHUMANN, TCHAIKOVSKY, RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
Schumann. Frauenliebe und leben. Op.24
Frauenliebe und -leben (A Woman's Love and Life) is a cycle of poems by Adelbert von Chamisso, written in 1830. Selections were set to music as a song-cycle by masters of German Lied, the setting by Schumann (his opus 42) is now the most widely known.

Schumann, Fantasiestücke, Op. 12
Robert Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, is a set of eight pieces for piano, written in 1837. The title was inspired by the 1814 collection of novellas Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier by one of his favourite authors, E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Galina and Alexey:

P. I. Tchaikovsky, Iolanta's ariozo from Iolanta
From a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the last opera he composed. The libretto was written by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, and is based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter (King René's Daughter) by Henrik Hertz, a romanticised account of the life of Yolande de Bar. The opera received its premiere on 18 December 1892 in Saint Petersburg.

Rimsky-Korsakov, Melting scene from "Snow Maiden"
From an opera in four acts with a prologue by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composed during 1880–1881. The Russian libretto, by the composer, is based on the like-named play by Alexander Ostrovsky The first performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera took place at the Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg on 29 January 1882. By 1898 it was revised in the edition known today. It remained the composer's own favorite work.

Mad scene from "Tsar's Bride"
From Rimsky- Korsakov's first opera The Maid of Pskov. Marfa is chosen as wife for Ivan the Terrible, but is pursued by Gryaznoy