Symphony Orchestra of India’s (SOI) Autumn 2023 season is coming up with Schumann & Stravinsky, a performance that will be conducted by Alpesh Chauhan OBE. Chauhan will lead the programme that opens with Richard Strauss’ Suite from his opera Der Rosenkavalier; veteran cellist Steven Isserlis will join with Schumann’s cello concerto; and there’s music from Stravinsky’s ballet, Petrushka (1947 version). We speak to the conductor, who shares about this 110-minute programme that will be conducted at the National Centre for the Performing Arts on Wednesday.

The performance will include the Strauss Suite followed by Schumann’s Cello concerto and Stravinsky’s Petrushka. Was there a thematic idea or concept you were looking for in the compositions? 
I felt it would be good to do something that has a lot of colour, energy, a story and a narrative for the audience here at the NCPA in Mumbai. Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka and Richard Strauss’s suite are incredible pieces in their own way. They are so colourful and created by two composers who are on top of their game. They are geniuses and their work is remarkable. Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier shows Octavian’s (a young nobleman) affair with a slightly older lady Marschallin; but then Octavian falls in love with young girl Sophie. And this, he [Strauss] shows through the entire opera in such a fantastic way that you feel the story. Most of the suite is in the proper order of the opera — The Firebird, The rite of spring and Petrushka. Petrushka is also the hardest of the three. It is also the most complete, the most generous in terms of how the characters are addressed. The Firebird has such beauty and such an experiment of colour that it can show what one can do in terms of the orchestra palate in front of you. There’s so much rhythm in the pieces!