Talented Bulgarian pianist Emanuil Ivanov will join the Plymouth Symphony Orchestra for their upcoming concert in the city in November.
The next Plymouth Symphony Orchestra live concerts are at Plymouth Guildhall on November 23 at 7.30pm and the Public Hall, Liskeard, November 20 at 5.30pm.
The opening work of the varied programme is the cheerful and light-hearted Karelia Overture by Sibelius. It features beautiful bold themes as well as references to the better-known Intermezzo.
This is followed, in great contrast, by Wagner’s moving and mystical Siegfried’s Death and Funeral March from Gotterdammerung, which was the last in Wagner’s cycle of his four music dramas, The Ring.
Bulgarian pianist Emanuil Ivanov joins the orchestra for the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor (Plymouth concert only). This is one of Grieg’s most popular and well-known works and although it was strongly influenced by Schumann’s Piano Concerto it is also rich in Norwegian character.
Ivanov has performed at festivals around the world, as well as playing with leading orchestras in Bulgaria and Italy. This talented young pianist has won many prizes, including being awarded first prize in the Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy in 2019.
Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances (Liskeard concert only) are a series of popular orchestral pieces, which were originally written for piano duet. Although these were modelled on Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, an important difference is that he didn’t actually use Slavic folk melodies and instead used their characteristic rhythms to create the Slavonic flavour.
The final work, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, was inspired by the loss of his artist friend Hartmann.
This had a deep effect on Mussorgsky and an exhibition of Hartmann’s pictures inspired this work, original composed for piano. Maurice Ravel’s colourful and dynamic orchestral arrangement has ensured the work’s enduring popularity in the orchestral repertoire.
For ticket information please visit www.plymouthsymphony.co.uk
