Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Henry Shek

Tcherepnin: Le pavillon d'Armide, Op. 29 (Excerpts)

Nikolay Tcherepnin, a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov in St Petersburg, achieved fame as a conductor, directing the premiere of his ballet Le Pavillon d'Armide as the opening to Diaghilev's first Ballets Russes season in 1911 which also marked the Paris debut of Nijinsky. A work of great importance in the history of modern ballet, with choreography by Fokin, this enchanting score brings to life a Gobelin tapestry in a mysterious and haunted pavilion in the grounds of a French chateau. Cocteau described its effect as better than a poem by Heine, than a story of Poe, than any dream, this is nostalgia for things partly seen, insubstantial and insistent.