Name: Rachmaninoff Cycle, Part Ii
Start: 2017-11-30T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2017-11-30T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre

Organization

Conductor

Valery Gergiev

Instrumentalist

Denis Matsuev

Piano

Orchestra

Orchester des Mariinski-Theaters

Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre

Rachmaninoff Cycle, Part Ii

Vladivostok

Russia

Big Hall

Rachmaninoff Cycle, Part Ii: Piano Concerto no. 4 in G minor, Op. 40 (+1 More)

Public

Piano Concerto no. 4 in G minor, op. 40

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in D Minor op.30

Approved

In spite of his incredible love for his Motherland, Rachmaninoff could never accept the October Revolution and in 1918 he went into self-imposed exile. In the alien lands he had to start his life from scratch: to provide for his family he toured constantly as a pianist, practically without breaks. For almost ten years he had neither time, nor mood to compose music. Only in 1926 Rachmaninoff returned to his Concerto No. 4, which he had started writing back in Russia. The concerto was premiered in America on March 18, 1927, with the composer as soloist and Leopold Stokowski leading the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Concerto had a rather cold receipt: the expectations of the public, who still remembered soulful lyricism of his First and Second Concertos, did not come true. The composer’s musical language had become more barren and graphical, with interspersing sarcastic and mocking intonations, which was, in essence, inevitable, given unstable situation in the world in the first half of the 20 century. As a result, though Rachmaninoff revised the composition twice, the Fourth Concerto is not performed as frequently as its predecessors. However, a talented execution will surely allow the listeners to discover a wealth of wonderful music in this composer’s first foreign opus: the bright and romantic theme of the first movement, rich in emotional tones Largo and the energy of fast passages and “sharp” sonorities in the Finale.

Concerto No. 3 for Piano and Orchestra was created by Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff in 1909, during one of the most favourable periods in his life, when all his creative doubts had been left behind and the composer was confidently bringing his intentions to life by penning one masterpiece after another. The ancient chants theme, opening the Third Concerto, was Rachmaninov’s ‘lucky find”: there is something indigenously Russian and archaic about this one-voiced tune, as if a story-teller - rhapsode were starting his unhurried narration. “I wanted to ‘sing’ the melody on the piano, as a singer would sing it—and to find a suitable orchestral accompaniment, or rather one that would not muffle this singing.”, said the composer about this piece.
In addition to melodies of incredible beauty, the Third Piano Concerto astounds by the grandiose breadth and monumentality of its richest solo part. Rachmaninoff imbued the piano line to the full, having filled the culminations with “multi-storied” chord layers, the intensity and power of which take the listeners’ breath away. The extraordinary virtuosic and musical demands of the Third Concerto make it one the most challenging works in the piano concerto repertoire, no matter how well-equipped the pianist is. This composition requires not only exceptional technical power, but also the fortitude, allowing the performer to bear the strain from the very first note to the concluding triumphant hymn, praising the victory of those who have overcome all the hurdles.

English

Rachmaninoff Cycle, Part Ii by Rachmaninoff, From (2017/2017), Conductor Valery Gergiev, Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, Vladivostok, Russia

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