Alexandra Dariescu: Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite
The celebrated pianist explores short-form pieces of music across the ages with an aural sampler of different composers, culminating in Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.
Alexandra Dariescu has made it her mission to create concert programmes that give underrepresented female composers equal billing with their better-known male colleagues.
In this kaleidoscopic journey through the wealth of music for piano written across the ages and around the world, she places miniature masterpieces by Missy Mazzoli, Florence Price and Lili Boulanger, among others, alongside those by Bach and Dariescu’s fellow Romanian Ciortea.
Dariescu devotes the second half to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, which includes the famous notes of the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy.
Performers
Alexandra Dariescu piano
Repertoire
Klein: The Child's dream, Op.8 No.1
Bach: Prelude in B minor transc. Siloti from Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV.855a
Missy Mazzoli: A map of laughter
James Lee III: Humble birth
Beach: Harlequin from Children's Carnival, Op.25
Price: The Goblin & the mosquito
L Boulanger: 3 Morceaux
Tailleferre: Romance
Kashperova: Songs without Words No.5
Filtsch: Mazurka in E flat minor from Premières pensées musicales, Op.3
Ciortea: Romanian dance
Interval
Tchaikovsky: Selection from The Nutcracker *
Need to know
* Please note change to repertoire from originally advertised.
Find out more about the music with our free programme.
View the programme
Reviews
‘[Dariescu] played its melodies with winning charm, like a ray of sunshine in a wintry world’
The Arts Desk
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