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You have almost certainly heard the first piece in this concert, the
Hungarian Rhapsody no 2 by Liszt, as the background music to cartoons such as
Tom and Jerry! It was originally written for solo piano but a couple of orchestrations were made
and it never fails to delight with its slow dramatic opening and wild
‘friska’ section!
Eastern European dance rhythms are also in evidence in the Violin Concerto by
Dvořák. Our original soloist Alexander Sitkovetsky is
unfortunately unavailable, but we are very pleased to welcome back
Benjamin Baker who previously performed with HSO in 2009 and has
kindly made himself available again at very short notice!
The second half of our concert takes us on a little stroll! First to
the ‘Paradise Garden’ with Delius (this piece coming originally
from his opera ‘A Village Romeo and Juliet’) and then around an art
Exhibition with Mussorgsky! The Russian composer’s huge work
– like the Liszt, originally written for solo piano – is a
depiction of an exhibition of paintings and drawings by a friend of
Mussorgsky’s, Viktor Hartmann. The music for each of the ten
pictures is joined together by recurring ‘promenade’ music as the
viewer walks from one picture to the next.
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