The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing in Toulouse’s Halle aux Grains for the fourth time, this time under the baton of the celebrated Russian maestro Tugan Sokhiev. On the programme: Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite Scheherazade (1888), inspired by the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights, combines themes dear to the heart of this orchestrator of genius: the sea and fairytales. A journey saturated with colour, timbre and rhythm. In the second half, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 (1878), the first of a cycle of three great symphonies known as the ‘symphonies of destiny’. Classic in form, this piece leaves its mark on the audience with its introspective dimension and dramatic intensity, making it a monument to Slavic Romanticism.
By uniting these two major works of the Russian repertoire, Tugan Sokhiev is playing on velvet and in the heart of his repertoire. The man who was musical director of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse from 2008 to 2022 revels in sculpting detail, installing breaths and phrasing, while leaving the soloists free rein. A bewitching, shimmering oriental journey.