Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky
Anatoly Konstantinovich Liadov (1855-1914)
Kikimora, Op.63
“Give me fairies and dragons and mermaids and goblins, and I am thoroughly happy” wrote Anatoly Liadov, and those who knew him tended to agree. “He was a small man with a sympathetic, squinting face and few hairs on his head” recalled Stravinsky, who knew Liadov well. “He always carried books under his arm – Maeterlinck, ETA Hoffmann, Anderson: he liked tender, fantastical things.” Liadov was a perfectionist, and the handful of short orchestral works that he completed are like Fabergé eggs in their fantasy, colour and craftsmanship.
In his tone poem Kikimora– premiered in St Petersburg in 1909 – Liadov headed his score with a quotation from JP Sakharov’s 1849 collection of Russian fairy-tales:
Kikimora grew up with a sorcerer in the mountains. From dawn to sunset the magician’s cat regaled her with fantastic tales, as Kikimora rocked in a cradle made of crystal…her head is no larger than a thimble and her body no wider than a strand of straw.
Muted strings rock quietly; the cor anglais sings the cat’s lullaby, and the crystal cradle glitters eerily on the celeste. Then, with a shriek, Kikimora leaps from her bed and skitters off through the night.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Andantino semplice – Allegro con fuoco
On Christmas Eve 1874, in a room at the Moscow Conservatoire, Tchaikovsky played through his new Piano Concerto for the first time in front of three friends. One of them, the pianist Nikolai Rubinstein, sat there in total silence. “Well?” Then Rubinstein began to speak. “It appeared” reported Tchaikovsky “that my concerto was worthless, unplayable, trite, awkward, clumsy, tawdry, partly plagiarised and fit only for the wastepaper bin”.
Tchaikovsky’s reply to Rubinstein was defiant: “I won’t change a single note!” But then, defiance is the keynote of the whole concerto. “We’re dealing with two equal opponents” wrote Tchaikovsky “the orchestra with its wealth, power and unlimited colour, opposed by the small but spirited piano – which often comes off victorious in the hands of a great player”.
So the horns throw down the gauntlet and the opponents test their strength with one of Tchaikovsky’s grandest melodies. When battle is joined in earnest, it’s with a whimsical tune cribbed from a Ukrainian peasant, and later, a tender theme as romantic as anything in Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. The Andantino provides a breather – a simple folk song (Tchaikovsky’s own this time) frames a glittering French waltz. And then the struggle resumes with an all-action finale. Who wins, piano or orchestra? You’d have to say Tchaikovsky.
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Symphony No. 10 in E minor Op. 93
Moderato – Allegro – Allegretto – Andante, Allegro
Joseph Stalin was pronounced dead on the evening of 5th March 1953. Since 1948, when Stalin’s propaganda chief Zhdanov had attacked a generation of Soviet composers, Shostakovich had kept a low musical profile. Now he got down to serious work on a Tenth Symphony. At some point in the process, a sparrow flew in through an open window and relieved itself on the manuscript score: “Well, if a sparrow’s willing to shit on it, it can’t be all that bad” he remarked. “Better a sparrow than someone more powerful”.
And when the Symphony was premiered in Leningrad on 17th December 1953, the audience called Shostakovich on stage for bow after bow. The huge first movement rises in fragments from the darkest depths of the orchestra, building to a terrifying climax before retreating back into the shadows. The savage second movement (or so Shostakovich hinted) is a portrait of Stalin himself. The third movement hides its secrets behind the mask of an awkward, sardonic dance and the finale begins in the shadows before the clarinet gives an insolent shout and the orchestra hurtles brightly into exactly the sort of jaunty upbeat finale the Soviet authorities said they wanted. Well, nearly. Take it as you find it: Shostakovich expected nothing more – or less.
Vasily Petrenko
Vasily Petrenko is Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he assumed in 2021, and which ignited a partnership that has been praised by audiences and critics worldwide. The same year, he became Conductor Laureate of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, following his hugely acclaimed 15-year tenure as their Chief Conductor from 2006 to 2021. He is the Associate Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and has also served as Chief Conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra (2015–2024), Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (2013–2020) and Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (2009–2013). He stood down as Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ in 2022, having been their Principal Guest Conductor from 2016 and Artistic Director from 2020.
He has worked with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), St Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic and NHK Symphony orchestras, and in North America has led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and the San Francisco, Boston and Chicago Symphony orchestras. He has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, Grafenegg Festival and BBC Proms. Equally at home in the opera house, and with over 30 operas in his repertoire, Vasily has conducted widely on the operatic stage, including at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Opéra National de Paris, Opernhaus Zürich, Bayerische Staatsoper and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
Recent highlights as Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra have included wide-ranging touring across major European capitals and festivals, China, Japan and the USA. In London, recent acclaimed performances have included Mahler’s choral symphonies and concerts with Yunchan Lim and Maxim Vengerov at the Royal Albert Hall, performances at the BBC Proms, and the Icons Rediscovered and Lights in the Dark series. In the 2025–26 Season, at the Royal Albert Hall, they will perform three mighty Mahler’s symphonies alongside Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Korngold’s Violin Concerto. At the Royal Festival Hall, highlights include Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10, Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, orchestral music from Wagner’s Parsifal and Scriabin’s Symphony No.3, ‘The Divine Poem’.
Vasily has established a strongly defined profile as a recording artist. Amongst a wide discography, his Shostakovich, Rachmaninov and Elgar symphony cycles with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra have garnered worldwide acclaim. With the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, he has released cycles of Scriabin’s symphonies and Strauss’ tone poems, and an ongoing series of the symphonies of Prokofiev and Myaskovsky. In autumn 2025, he launches a new partnership between the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Harmonia Mundi label, with Elgar’s Falstaff and Rachmaninov’s The Bells, to be followed by subsequent releases of Strauss, Bartók and Stravinsky.
Born in 1976, Vasily was educated at the St Petersburg Capella Boys Music School and St Petersburg Conservatoire. He was Gramophone Artist of the Year (2017), Classical BRIT Male Artist of the Year (2010), and holds honorary degrees from Liverpool’s three universities. In 2024, Vasily also launched a new academy for young conductors, co-organised by the Primavera Foundation Armenia and the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra.
Tom Borrow
In January 2019, Tom Borrow was called on to replace renowned pianist Khatia Buniatishvili in a series of 12 concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. At only 36 hours’ notice, he performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G to sensational public and critical acclaim. Tom was further presented by the IPO in gala concerts in London and Mexico City, and they reinvited him for a second subscription series.
Later that year, International Piano magazine named him their ‘One To Watch’ and soon afterwards, Gramophone gave him the same accolade (“an exciting young pianist… individuality and elegance”). In December 2021, after his hugely-praised US debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, Musical America named Tom their ‘New Artist Of The Month’. Tom is a BBC New Generation Artist, and in July 2022, Tom made his debut at the BBC Proms, at the Royal Albert Hall, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was presented with the prestigious Terence Judd-Hallé Orchestra Award 2023. Across 2024 and ’25, he is Artist-In-Residence for the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), across two years including their 70th anniversary season, playing all the Beethoven concertos and more.
Born in Tel Aviv in 2000, Tom Borrow has performed as soloist with all major orchestras of his native country. He began studying piano aged five with Dr. Michal Tal at the Givatayim Music Conservatory, and continued with Prof. Tomer Lev of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University. Tom has been regularly mentored by Murray Perahia, through the Jerusalem Music Centre’s program for outstanding young musicians. He also participated in masterclasses under the instruction of Sir András Schiff, Christoph Eschenbach, Richard
Goode, Menahem Pressler, and Tatiana Zelikman, among many others.
Tom won every national piano competition in Israel, including first prize at the Israeli Radio & Jerusalem Symphony Young Artist Competition in Jerusalem, and three first prizes at the “Piano Forever” Competition in Ashdod (in three different age categories). In 2018, he won the prestigious “Maurice M. Clairmont” award, given to a single promising artist once every two years by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and Tel-Aviv University.
After the Israel Philharmonic success, Tom has been invited by major orchestras around the world – recent and forthcoming engagements include the Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and others – and is invited by leading conductors including Semyon Bychkov, Fabio Luisi, Vasily Petrenko, Christoph Eschenbach, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Thierry Fischer, Stephane Deneve, Xian Zhang, Robert Trevino, Omer Wellber, Masaaki Suzuki and Sir Mark Elder. Tom has also toured to Eastern Europe with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, to regular standing ovations, and to South Korea with the Tel Aviv Soloists.
Equally in-demand on the chamber music and recital fronts, he is invited to the Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Konzerthaus, Ruhr Piano Festival, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Beethoven Haus Bonn, Vancouver Recital Society, Festival Piano Aux Jacobins (Toulouse), Società del Quartetto di Milano, Aldeburgh Festival and Cheltenham Festival.
WWFM Radio in the US have featured him as an outstanding young talent, and Interlude magazine named him their ‘Artist Of The Month’. RAI Television livestreamed his concert with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov, Wigmore Hall livestreamed his recital debut, ETB Television (Spain) broadcast a performance of Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 with the Basque National Orchestra under Robert Trevino, and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra are livestreaming his Beethoven concerts across his artist residency. In a recent feature, Pianist Magazine wrote of Tom, “Ethereal and enchanting… rapid sensational rise…certainly claiming his place as one of the greats of tomorrow…a poetic player with a mesmerising coiled-spring stillness.”
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), with Music Director Vasily Petrenko, is on a mission to bring the thrill of live orchestral music to the widest possible audience. The RPO’s musicians believe that music can – and should – be a part of everyone’s life, and they aim to deliver on that belief through every note. Based in London and performing around 200 concerts per year worldwide, the RPO brings the same energy, commitment and excellence to everything it plays, be that the great symphonic repertoire, collaborations with pop stars, or TV, video game and movie soundtracks. Proud of its rich heritage yet always evolving, the RPO is regarded as the world’s most versatile symphony orchestra, reaching a live and online audience of more than 70 million people each year.
Innovation is in the RPO’s genes. Sir Thomas Beecham, who founded the RPO in 1946, was a force of musical nature: an entrepreneur, a wit and a conductor of great integrity, and he believed that great music-making belonged to everyone and that Britain needed an orchestra that was as adaptable as it was brilliant. This vision has remained integral to the RPO’s approach. The RPO was one of the first orchestras to set up a community and education programme, RPO Resound, and the first orchestra to create its own record label, as well as the first to travel to America post-COVID-19.
Throughout its history, the RPO has performed with the world’s most inspiring musicians, including André Previn, Yehudi Menuhin, Yuri Temirkanov and Vladimir Ashkenazy, as well as icons including Kylie Minogue, Shirley Bassey, Deep Purple, Def Leppard and Rod Stewart. And not just musicians, either. From British movie classics such as The Red Shoes and The Bridge on the River Kwai to the anthem for the UEFA Champions League, the RPO has been part of the soundtrack to millions of lives, sometimes without people knowing it. The Orchestra has continued to embrace advances in digital technology and attracts a growing global audience for its streamed performances, artist interviews, ‘behind-the-scenes’ insights and other digital output. Each year, the RPO’s recorded music is streamed over 50 million times, has 17 million views on YouTube, and the Orchestra welcomes around 200,000 audience members to its live performances.
But live performance has always been at the heart of what the RPO does, and through its thriving artistic partnership with Vasily Petrenko, the RPO has reaffirmed its status as one of the world’s most respected and in-demand orchestras. In London, that means flagship concert series at Cadogan Hall (where the RPO’s residency is 21 years young this season), the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and the iconic Royal Albert Hall, where the RPO is proud to be Associate Orchestra. The Orchestra is also thrilled to be resident in four areas of the UK, performing at The Hawth in Crawley, Hull City Hall, Northampton’s Royal & Derngate and The Hexagon in Reading.
Recent concert highlights have included performances of all three of Mahler’s epic choral symphonies at the Royal Albert Hall, appearances at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival, and concerts within leading European festivals, such as the George Enescu, Lucerne, Merano and Grafenegg festivals. Artistic partners have included Joe Hisaishi (RPO Composer-in-Association), Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yunchan Lim, Julia Fisher, Eric Lu, Maxim Vengerov, Roderick Williams OBE and the RPO’s Cadogan Hall Artist-in-Residence Johan Dalene, among many others. During the 2025–26 Season, the Orchestra looks forward to welcoming Ray Chen, Midori, Benjamin Grosvenor, Boris Giltburg, Sir John Rutter and Cadogan Hall Conductor-in-Residence Kevin John Edusei. And around the world, the RPO will be flying the flag for the best of British music-making, with tours to Japan and South Korea, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the USA.
The RPO remains true to its pioneering, accessible roots. Now in its fourth decade, the RPO Resound community and education programme continues to thrive as one of the UK’s – and the world’s – most innovative and respected initiatives of its kind. And in 2025, the RPO moves its headquarters to Wembley Park in the London Borough of Brent – the realisation of a long-held ambition to become part of the everyday life of a diverse community and audience that the orchestra is seeking to serve.
Passionate, versatile and uncompromising in its pursuit of musical excellence, and with the patronage of His Majesty King Charles III and the artistic leadership of Vasily Petrenko, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra continues to build on an enviable heritage to scale new heights. The Orchestra looks to the future with a determination to explore, to share and to reaffirm its reputation as an orchestra with a difference: open-minded, forward-thinking and accessible to all. Sir Thomas Beecham would have approved.
Discover more online at rpo.co.uk
