SOI on Tour: Birmingham, UK

Symphony Orchestra of India
Alpesh Chauhan, conductor
Zakir Hussain, tabla
Niladri Kumar , sitar
Rakesh Chaurasia , bansuri

Strauss Rosenkavalier Suite
Hussain Triple Concerto (European premiere)
Stravinsky Petrushka (1947)

Birmingham’s own Alpesh Chauhan guest conducts the Symphony Orchestra of India in its return visit. His meteoric rise now sees him as Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company, Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, and a regular at the helm of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

From the whooping horns of the opening, to the rapt intensity of the ‘Presentation of the Rose’ and the final rousing waltz, Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite shows off the orchestra in glorious technicolour. Petrushka is also an orchestral showcase as Stravinsky magically portrays the puppet characters in tales of servitude, love, jealousy and murder through music with a sinister undercurrent. This was one of the major works for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes that made Stravinsky’s name.

Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain has appeared many times at Symphony Hall and was soloist in his own tabla concerto, Peshkar, with the orchestra in 2019. Creating a fusion of Indian and Western classical music traditions, he uses the solo instruments and orchestra to the full, in a way that makes this combination seem the most natural thing in the world.

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