Stravinsky’s Firebird: Flame and Fantasy

Item details

Date

Saturday, Nov 22, 2025 7:30PM

Name

Stravinsky’s Firebird - Flame and Fantasy

Description

📍 This concert takes place at Powell Hall
🕒 2 hours (including intermission)

Stéphane Denève, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Guillaume Connesson Maslenitsa (First SLSO performances)
Aram Khachaturian Piano Concerto
Igor Stravinsky The Firebird

Immerse yourself in the eccentric, captivating sounds of Russian folk music. Music Director Stéphane Denève leads the SLSO in Stravinsky’s complete score to The Firebird, a 1910 ballet that revolutionized orchestral music while reimagining an age-old fairy tale. Adding charge to this electric program is Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who returns to the SLSO to perform Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto, a shimmering showpiece inspired by Armenian and Russian folk tunes. Guillaume Connesson’s Maslenitsa brims with the energy of a Slavic holiday festival to complete this colorful musical set.

A few things to know:

• Guillaume Connesson and Music Director Stéphane Denève have more than two decades of history together as friends and collaborators. “We have developed a particularly strong musical relationship that has enriched and taught me a great deal,” Connesson remarked in a recent interview with the New World Symphony.
• In another lifelong friendship showcased through this concert, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Denève consider each other beloved family members. Denève selected Thibaudet to be the SLSO’s artist-in-residence during his inaugural season as Music Director in 2019/20.
• While many performances present a condensed orchestral suite from The Firebird, the SLSO will share the complete ballet score in these concerts, just as Stravinsky originally envisioned.

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