On 31 March and 1 April Dimitri Kitaenko conducts the Gothenburg Symphony at the Konserthus of the Swedish city. Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for strings opens the program, followed by Naughty Limericks, the proper name given by Rodion Shchedrin to his 1963 Concerto for orchestra No. 1. Shchedrin incorporated in that work a number of chastushka, traditional,often humour-filled urban songs from Russia. Scored for a big orchestra, the long single-movement is indeed a brilliant and very virtuosic farce.
Russian mezzo Agunda Kulaeva is the soloist in the concert’s main work, Sergei Prokofiev’s cantata Alexander Nevski op. 78. It comes from the score that the composer wrote for the legendary historic film of Sergei Eisenstein about Alexander Nevsky, a Russian hero of the 13th century. The Gothenburg Symphony is joined by its own symphonic choir.