The Sydney Concert Orchestra’s founding Director and Chief Conductor, Omid Moheb Zadeh, rarely plays it safe, and the rewards of such risk-taking are extraordinary concerts like the one given during SCO’s City Recital Hall debut.

Centred around Tchaikovsky’s tumultuous Fourth Symphony, the program is a musical celebration of the Slavic spirit, brought to life through a unique collaboration with the exceptional Russian Orthodox Male Choir of Australia under Nektary Kotlaroff.

Just as the English-speaking world has embraced the American Songbook for over 100 years, songs are part of the bedrock of the Slavic community – many of them folk, some from the Soviet era, others like Kon (The Horse) written as recently as 1994.

Some of these songs are, of course, known outside the diaspora. For example, Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi and Mikhail Matusovsky’s 1955 hit Podmoskovinie vechera (Moscow Nights) was recorded by both James Last and Kenny Ball. Today, it is also known to classical music lovers around the world thanks to the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky, as is the folk song Kolokolchik (Little Bell).

SCO and ROMCA in Tales of the Homeland at City Recital Hall. Photo © Deppicto

Kolokolchik is performed here by John...