Rpo: Scheherazade

Tales of a thousand nights: Rimsky-Korsakov, Liadov, and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto.

Once upon a time…

Composers have always told stories: an enchanted lake ripples in the moonlight, hinting at tales untold; four horns throw down a challenge; a piano strides forward into combat, and, in Imperial Russia, Rimsky-Korsakov retells the One Thousand and One Nights stories through music of dazzling colour and unforgettable melody. There’s a good reason why Scheherazade is so popular, and conductor Ben Glassberg will relish every note.

Martin James Bartlett, meanwhile, is the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s epic First Piano Concerto – since his triumph in the 2014 BBC Young Musician competition, critics have declared him ‘not only a prodigy of the piano, but an accomplished artist who counts among the greats of his generation’.

So, if you’re sitting comfortably…