A day with Levon Parkian at the Rehearsal Orchestra in London.

The Rehearsal Orchestra with Georgi Hawkes-Wright

Working with the conductor, Levon Parkian, on Janáček’s “Taras Bulba”, and Kaprálová’s “Suita Rustica”.

Composed between 1915 and 1918, Janáček set three episodes from Gogol’s novel about the elderly Cossack Taras Bulba and his sons Andriy and Ostap, and dedicated the piece to "our army, the armed protector of our nation". Kaprálová’s Suita Rustica dates from 1938 and, like Janáček, draws on Czech folk song and dance, in wonderfully lyrical interludes, combined with a strikingly modern, dissonant and rhythmically insistent background. Kaprálová died aged only 25 and this is one of only two purely orchestral works in her output. A rare opportunity to get to know this music.