Vasily Petrenko  conductor
Nikolai Lugansky piano

Tchaikovsky  Fantasy Overture: Romeo and Juliet
Rachmaninov  Piano Concerto No. 3
Sibelius  Symphony No. 5

For this special event in our 2018-2019 season we welcome back the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra after a break of over a quarter of a century. They bring with them their inspirational Chief Conductor and a programme that blends Russian passion with Nordic atmosphere, beginning with Tchaikovsky’s famous Fantasy Overture, Romeo and Juliet. The soaring lyricism of its central love theme remains one of classical music’s best loved moments. Rachmaninov performed his Third Piano concerto as part of his first tour of the United States in 1909. Loved by audiences for its waves of epic melody and exhilarating shifts of gear, it also sends shivers down the spine of many a concert pianist for its daunting technical demands. Picking up the gauntlet is the acclaimed Russian virtuoso Nikolai Lugansky, making his Nottingham debut. Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony inhabits a very different sound world. Its clean lines and etched rhythms succeed in creating real sweep and grandeur, building from hushed daybreak to a visionary hymn-like finale, inspired by witnessing a flight of swans ascending into a radiant solar haze.