Programme
Igor Stravinsky – Divertimento ‘The Fairy’s Kiss’

Performers
Andrei Feher – conductor
Sarah Walker – presenter
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Join the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios as they perform music by Igor Stravinsky and Francis Poulenc. The young Romanian-Canadian conductor Andrei Feher makes his debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in this studio concert.

The Fairy’s Kiss is a ballet with music composed by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky in 1928. The piece is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s short story The Ice-Maiden. Stravinsky had known and loved the music of Tchaikovsky from childhood— he was taken to The Sleeping Beauty for the first time at the age of seven or eight. In The Fairy’s Kiss, Stravinsky pays homage to Tchaikovsky, borrowing from a number of Tchaikovsky’s songs and piano pieces. The Divertimento is a concert suite for orchestra based on music from the ballet.

The Sinfonietta is a work for orchestra by the French composer Francis Poulenc, written in 1947. It’s energetic, light and dance-infused music in four movements.

This concert will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.