BBC Proms

Helen Grime, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky (2016x27)

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Tonight’s Prom marks the first instalment of all three of Stravinsky’s landmark ballets for the Ballet Russes company, all performed this weekend by Scottish orchestras. In the vivid folk tale of a puppet springing to life, Stravinsky had the starting point for his stylistic breakthrough, Petrushka, a ballet that would depict Russia with ‘quick tempos, smells of Russian food, sweat and glistening leather boots’. The first part of a new work from major talent Helen Grime (see also Prom 30) prefaces this concert’s arrival in Russia via all the despair, passion and determination of Tchaikovsky’s heart-rending Violin Concerto.