Barbican Concerts

PROKOFIEV Scythian Suite
BERG Violin Concerto
LISZT Totentanz
JANÁCEK Sinfonietta

Kristjan Järvi conductor
Tai Murray violin
Stewart Goodyear piano
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain

Prokofiev’s lavish and brilliantly colourful Scythian Suite (1915) is based on music for an unproduced ballet. Berg was profoundly affected by the death of close friends’ daughter in 1935 and dedicated his Violin Concerto ‘to the memory of an angel.’ Liszt too was much possessed by death, and his danse macabre (1849) is ghoulishly evocative. Janácek’s Sinfonietta (1926), however, acclaims ‘the contemporary free man, his spiritual beauty and joy, his strength, courage and determination to fight for victory.’

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