Vasily Petrenko on Elgar and Rachmaninoff

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and its Music Director Vasily Petrenko make their joint debut on Harmonia Mundi next Friday with a pair of colourful works which were both premiered in 1913: Elgar's Shakespeare-inspired 'symphonic study' Falstaff and Rachmaninoff's choral symphony The Bells (which sets a Russian translations of the eponymous, posthumously-published poem by Edgar Allan Poe).

In a break from rehearsals for a concert in Nottingham last month, Vasily spoke to us on camera about how the parallels between these two works extend beyond their shared year of composition, why Falstaff has proved such a rich source of inspiration for composers from Verdi to Elgar, the significance of bells in Russian life and culture, and how the 'superb' Philharmonia Chorus rose to the challenge of singing in Russian...