The Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse is back on medici.tv for an all-Russian evening of music, under the direction of its Music Director, the great Tugan Sokhiev! The famed ensemble is joined on stage by the excellent Behzod Abduraimov, who opens the concert with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. This lively work notably contains a whirling scherzo, whose interpretation requires a remarkable virtuosity. The orchestra follows with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10, which premiered after Stalin’s death in 1953, an ironic yet anguished evocation of the fear experienced by those living under the rule of the dictator.

Behzod Abduraimov © Evgeny Eutykhov