Join us on a tour of Armenia and Ukraine starting with little-known Theodore Akimenko’s luscious tone poem. From its beginning Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto has an unmistakable oriental flavour. Rooted in Armenian folk music, themes are reminiscent of both Khatchaturian and Shostakovich. Tchaikovsky was visiting his sister in Ukraine (known as Little Russia during the Tsarist period) when he began work on his Second Symphony, influenced by Glinka’s use of folksongs which he considered to be fundamental to Russian symphonic music.

Ticket holders will gain free access to our Pre-Concert Talk featuring Andrew Burn, which will be available to view online from the Monday 5 October.