Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution – RAM Accordion Students

RAM Accordion Dept

Royal Academy accordion students perform with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy

The Royal Academy accordion students will also be performing with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy at St David’s Hall, Cardiff on Friday 18th May and again at the Royal Festival Hall, London on Sunday 20th May both at 7.30 pm.

In an all-Prokofiev programme, Conductor Laureate Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts the Crouch End Festival Chorus and Philharmonia Voices.

The show-stopping finale combines rousing melodies with a huge ensemble of chorus, orchestra, brass band, accordions, machine gun sounds, and the voice of Lenin: the dazzling Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution.

“You are a revolutionary in music, we are revolutionaries in life. We ought to work together. But if you want to go to America I shall not stand in your way.” So said a ‘People’s Commissar’ to Sergei Prokofiev, when the composer left to escape the chaos of the new Soviet Union in 1918. It would be 18 years before Prokofiev would return home permanently.

Two dramatic cantatas by Prokofiev were composed just before and after his self-imposed exile. Seven, They Are Seven (1917) takes its text from the Russian translation of an ancient Mesopotamian script. The massive Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the Revolution, featuring an accordion orchestra, military band, megaphone and maxim gun, brings the series to an earth-shattering close.

The concert also features Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 – violinist Pekka Kuusisto.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor

Soloists include:

Pekka Kuusisto, Philharmonia Voices, Crouch End Festival Chorus, students of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

PROKOFIEV Autumnal

PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 1

PROKOFIEV Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution with the accordion students of the Royal Academy of Music

Here is the link to the Philharmonia page which gives all the details:

http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/concerts/conductor/1/ashkenazy_vladimir

https://www.philharmonia.co.uk/concerts/1760?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=e-flyerVoR20180520choral&utm_content=VoR_20180520_version_A