The Hallé – The Firebird

Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Khachaturian Violin Concerto
Stravinsky The Firebird: Suite (1945)

Alondra de la Parra, the first Mexican to have conducted at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, has also established her name in the UK through concerts with the London and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras. The concert opens with Debussy’s sensuous evocation of the poet Mallarmé’s dreams and desires of a faun. Of Serbian-French descent, Nemanja Radulović’s charismatic performances have been thrilling audiences. Khachaturian’s concerto is pervaded with the folk song and dance of his Armenian heritage and Radulović’s recording of it has won plaudits from Gramophone for its ‘energy and firepower.’ Stravinsky’s score for The Firebird, bathed in shimmering orchestral colours, proved his breakthrough work, leading to the impresario Diaghilev’s prediction about the composer – ‘he is a man on the cusp of celebrity.’