Berlioz, Saint-Saëns and Rimsky-Korsakov - by Marc Mandel and Richard Dyer, narrated by Eleanor McGourty

Summary: Listen in to the Concert Preview! Born in the Ossetian region of the Caucasus and making his BSO debut in these concerts, Tugan Sokhiev is music director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. He is joined by the German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser, also making his BSO debut, for Saint-Saëns's Cello Concerto No. 1, a single-movement, fantasia-like work by turns fiery and charming. Opening the program is Hector Berlioz's Le Corsaire Overture, which, as was often the composer's practice, took shape from earlier sketches. The title is an incidental reference to James Fenimore Cooper's The Red Rover ("Le Corsaire rouge"). Rimsky Korsakov's orchestral masterpiece, the "symphonic suite" Scheherezade, masterfully spins out its Arabian Nights-inspired tableaux via transformations of an immediately recognizable musical motif. The work features a major solo violin part usually played by the orchestra's concertmaster.