Philharmonia Orchestra

Sergey Prokofiev: Montagues and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet
Sergey Prokofiev: Romeo at Juliet's Tomb from Romeo and Juliet
Sergey Prokofiev: The Death of Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet
Sergey Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.63
Interval
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 (Pathétique)

Maestro Maazel conducts an all-Russian programme. Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.2 with soloist Vadim Repin, excerpts from Romeo and Juliet and Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony.

Few symphonies have attracted as much conspiracy theory as Tchaikovsky's Pathétique. Just nine days after its 1893 premiere, the composer died suddenly. Was the symphony's brooding solemnity - with its pathos and final descent into eerie silence - a portent of Tchaikovsky's own demise? Or indeed a symphonic suicide note?

Whatever the truth behind the enigma, the Sixth certainly took its emotional toll on Tchaikovsky, who declared that 'I have without exaggeration put my whole soul into this work...'

This all-Russian concert also features Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto and selected excerpts from Romeo and Juliet.

Philharmonia Orchestra
Lorin Maazel conductor
Vadim Repin violin