London Symphony Orchestra / Fabien Gabel

Barbican Hall, London
Barbican, Silk Street, London EC2
United Kingdom
020 7638 8891
http://www.barbican.org.uk/eticketing

Fabien Gabel conductor
James Ehnes violin
London Symphony Orchestra



Rising star Fabien Gabel conducts a programme highlighting the subtle connections between French and Russian repertoire.

Shostakovich’s searing Violin Concerto No 1 forms the centrepiece of this concert, performed here by the inimitable James Ehnes. The concerto was written during a time of great turmoil for Shostakovich, and was supressed for almost a decade before its first performance. This darkly dramatic work revels in devil-may-care virtuosity for orchestra and soloist alike.

A pair of works created by Ravel bookend the programme. La valse is a musical depiction of the birth and eventual destruction of the waltz genre that saw its heyday amidst the grandeur and excess of fin-de-siecle Vienna. Ravel’s iconic arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition brings the concert to a thrilling close, with Ravel’s flawlessly crafted orchestration breathing life and colour into Mussorgsky’s magnum opus.



Maurice Ravel : La Valse
Dmitri Shostakovich : Violin Concerto No 1
Michael Taplin : Ebbing Tides
Modest Mussorgsky : Pictures at an Exhibition