Yuja Wang / Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla / CBSO

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla direction
Yuja Wang piano

György Ligeti: Concert Românesc
Sergueï Prokofiev: Concerto pour piano et orchestre N° 5
Igor Stravinsky: L'Oiseau de feu (Der Feuervogel) .

In recent years, pianist Yuja Wang has taken a special interest in Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos. On May 23 she will play the relatively rarely-heard Fifth Piano Concerto, accompanied by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under its Lithuanian chief conductor Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla. There are reminiscences in the work of Igor Stravinsky’s neoclassic style, but also of ancient Russian folklore motifs. Against this background, the combination with Stravinsky’s ballet music Firebird makes particular sense. György Ligeti’s Concert Românesc was also inspired by folk music. At the time, the Romanian cultural authorities took offense at some of his dissonant stylistic means, so that the work’s premiere was cancelled and could not be performed until twenty years later.