SINFONY CONCERT No. 4

Soloist: Alexandra Segal, piano

Conductor: Anna Handler

Peter Tchaikovsky: "The Thunderstorm",

Overture in E minor op. 76 to the drama by A. N. Ostrowsky

Camille Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor op. 22

Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 in G minor op. 13 "Winter Dreams"

As a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Peter Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write a grand overture in 1864. He was inspired by Alexander Ostrovsky's drama "The Thunderstorm". It tells the story of the unhappily married Katerina Kabanova, who confesses her adultery to her husband during a thunderstorm and then throws herself into the waters of the Volga. "The Thunderstorm" is considered Tchaikovsky's first major orchestral work.

However, the composer also used motifs from the overture in other works, for example in the second movement of his First Symphony, completed in 1866, which was nicknamed "Winter Dreams" because of its movement titles such as "Reverie on a winter journey".

Camille Saint-Saëns wrote his second piano concerto in just 17 days. The late Romantic work nevertheless demonstrates compositional mastery and original virtuosity.