BBC Symphony Orchestra: Sakari Oramo conducts Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring
Programme
Igor Stravinsky
Funeral Song
Dmitry Shostakovich
Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor
Igor Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring
Performers
Igor Yuzefovich
violin
Sakari Oramo
conductor
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Only rediscovered in 2015, Stravinsky’s early Funeral Song is a memorial to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo here perform both this fascinating miniature and the composer’s arresting ballet score The Rite of Spring together for the first time. The Orchestra’s new joint leader Igor Yuzefovich demonstrates his virtuosity in Shostakovich’s mercurial First Violin Concerto, taking on the great emotional and physical demands of a work composed under the restrictions of the Soviet Regime, but only premiered after Stalin’s death.