Tchaikovsky’s incidental music to the play “The Snow Maiden” by Alexander Ostrovsky is undoubtedly his principal contribution to this genre. The composer and the poet were jointly commissioned to write the piece by the famous Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, which led to a close and very productive cooperation. In fact, Tchaikovsky completed the lavishly scored work within a matter of only three weeks. At the heart of the play is a popular Russian folk tale with a familiar fairytale motif: a mythical creature longs for a human soul and for the ability to feel love but is tragically destroyed by the irreconcilable differences between the human world and its mythical counterpart. Kristjan Järvi has been the principal conductor of the MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra since the 2012 season. He is a unique musical personality pushing the classical music borders with new ideas, his charisma and extraordinary technical prowess. He has been hailed by The New York Times as "a kinetic force on the podium, like Leonard Bernstein reborn." Järvi combines his classical music origins and his love for traditional repertoire with a powerful passion for original concert programs, that catapults concert halls and audiences around the world into the 21st century. Järvi has more than 30 albums to his credit and has received various awards, including the Swedish Grammy for Best Opera Performance, the German Record Critics Prize for Best Album and is a Grammy nominee.
