POÈME DE L’EXTASE – RACHMANINOW 3 & JAMES GAFFIGAN

Before the turning point of the First World War, the belief in progress at the fin de siècle was also reflected musically in ever larger orchestral forces. Former Chief Conductor James Gaffigan had already worked towards this expansion of symphonic thinking. He now returns as guest conductor with a programme that develops the idea of the monumental in several directions.

Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto is legendary for its technical and emotional demands. The composer himself called it his “elephant concerto”: a work of tremendous ambition in which Russian melancholy, virtuoso force and ecstatic intensification come together. Kirill Gerstein is the soloist.

In “Chant du Rossignol”, Igor Stravinsky fans out the large ensemble into a glittering, exotically coloured sound palette. Alexander Scriabin’s “Poème de l’Extase”, finally, aims at cosmic dimensions. From shadowy sound textures, increasingly clear contours emerge until the music condenses into overwhelming mystical radiance.

An evening devoted to grand visions of sound – intoxicating, colourful and charged with enormous orchestral energy.