PASSION – RACHMANINOFF & TCHAIKOVSKY

With its wide soundscapes, Late Romanticism also created some of the conditions for what would later be perceived as great film music. In this programme, monumental symphonic writing and vivid narrative power come together in two works whose emotional immediacy remains undiminished.

Sergei Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto begins with powerful piano chords that resonate like bells. From them grows a passionate drama of the soul, in which soloist and orchestra unfold broad melodic arcs, dark colours and surging intensifications. Nikolai Lugansky, whose international career gained decisive momentum in 1997 when he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, is an ideal interpreter for this music.

Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the “Pathétique”, is also music of existential force. Tchaikovsky himself spoke of a programme that should “remain a mystery to everyone”. Echoes of the Russian liturgy for the dead, passionate climaxes and the deeply moving Adagio finale suggest farewell, lament and perhaps a requiem for the composer himself.

Chief Conductor Michael Sanderling brings the two works together in an evening of great emotional intensity – Late Romantic, visually powerful and profoundly human.