Latest news with #Rachmaninoff
Bangkok Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Bangkok Post
A night of titans
Decidedly heroic music was the order of the day earlier this month at the Thailand Cultural Centre as the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra marked the auspicious occasion of Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn Krom Phra Srisavangavadhana's birthday. There is arguably no symphony mightier than Beethoven's third, the Eroica, and this most fitting choice of programming welcomed a fresh new maestro to the RBSO podium -- charismatic Polish conductor Slawomir Grenda, who has also been principal bassist of the great Munich Philharmonic since 1996. Balanced in the first half by an exceptionally impressive showcase of two of Thailand's master musicians, pianist Jayanat Wisaijorn and double bassist Nattawut Sungkasaro performed Rachmaninoff's famous Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini and a slightly lesser known treat -- the Double Bass Concerto In F-sharp Minor by Serge Koussevitsky. That composer premiered this challenging staple of the bass repertoire himself in 1905, and it is notable for the raised scordatura tuning by a whole tone, with the extra tension facilitating projection in venues as large as the Thailand Cultural Centre. Of all his phenomenal piano creations, Rachmaninoff's iconic Paganini Rhapsody is perhaps captures the imagination more than any other and Jayanat's superlative rendition of it certainly reaffirmed this perception, as it thrilled an enthusiastically engaged audience. He possesses a consummate mastery at the keyboard, which is the result of arduous studies with the great virtuoso and pedagogue Emile Naoumoff -- the last disciple of none other than the legendary Nadia Boulanger. An alumnus of the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Jayanat has the rounded personality of an exceptional artist who can certainly hold his own on the international stage. This warhorse is one of those perennial favourites which never becomes any easier for soloists or indeed an orchestra and conductor -- the score is as filigree as it is multifaceted and the 24 variations demand intense levels of concentration and focus. Indeed, Rachmaninoff himself acknowledged having occasional problems with some of the variations of his own spectacular masterpiece, despite famously having perhaps the largest hand-span of any pianist in history. However, from the word go Jayanat assumed absolute control of the knotty material, reassuring the attentive patrons that a musically profound and technically assured interpretation was just about to unfold, and indeed it did. The theme and 24 variations are of course based on Paganini's instantly recognisable 24th Caprice In A Minor for solo violin, and the combined violin sections introduced the legendary 1st position theme neatly and without fuss, setting on their course variations 1-10, which effectively constitute an extended 1st section. Grenda kept the soloist and RBSO rhythmically tight in expert fashion, attentive to all details in the score with all orchestral interjections precise and clear, whilst Jayanat himself was note-perfect. Delicate pianistic touch is the essence of the next, much slower and reflective eight variations, which as a group constitute the 2nd section of the piece. Variation 18, of course, is one of those irresistible melodies which, when heard, strikes one as surely among the most iconic in all music history. A slowed-down melodic inversion of the Paganini theme, both soloist and orchestra were obviously full of emotion at this crucial moment. Variations 19-24 correspondingly constitute what can be thought of as the finale of this work, increasingly frenetic and furiously active as the masterpiece builds to its almighty statement of the "Dies Irae" -- an entertaining demonic nod to the devilish Paganini himself! RBSO double bass principal Nattawut Sungkasaro is a genuinely incredible young virtuoso of his instrument, and as a highly privileged beneficiary of a Princess Sirivannavari Cultivated Arts Foundation Scholarship has received the best education at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. One of his many esteemed tutors is Slawomir Grenda himself -- hence their pairing in this programme -- and their partnership produced a beautifully etched interpretation. Nattawut's awe-inspiring technical facility is married to the deepest levels of musicality and the RBSO is most fortunate to count him among their ranks. Also, Claudio Abbado's hand-picked choice as principal bassist for the top-notch Lucerne Festival Orchestra since 2006, Grenda like his Thai disciple is a formidable musical personality. Returning to the podium after the interval to conduct the Eroica from memory (like Karajan and indeed Abbado, without the need for stand or score) he certainly brought many of those familiar tropes from the Central European tradition to his energetic interpretation. This was a powerful and gripping performance from first to last, with some delightful touches of subtlety. For example, amid the predominance of thick, heavy textures and long sustained fortissimos, near the start of the Finale, it was perfectly charming to hear as a counterbalance that brief string quartet variation as stipulated by the genius creator himself.
ABC News
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Classic 100 Piano – Highlights
For more than 20 years, the Classic 100 has been one of the most anticipated events on the Australian classical music calendar: a chance for music-lovers across the country to nominate the music that means the most to them. This year's theme is the piano: from solo gems all the way to concertos with a full orchestra, from music fallen in love with during piano lessons to virtuoso concert showpieces, this is a celebration of all the sounds and colours of one of Australia's favourite instruments. Listen or Buy Here Tracklist CD1 1.-3. Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 'Emperor' (complete) 4. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 'Moonlight': I. Adagio sostenuto 5. Chopin: Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. 6. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue 7. Debussy: Suite bergamasque: III. Clair de lune CD2 1. Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2: II. Adagio sostenuto 2. Satie: Gymnopédie No. 1 3. Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1: I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito 4. Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini: 18th Variation 5. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 'Elvira Madigan': II. Andante 6. JS Bach: Goldberg Variations: Aria 7. Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel 8. Grieg: Piano Concerto: I. Allegro molto moderato 9. JS Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier: Prelude No. 1 in C major CD3 1. JS Bach arr. Hess: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring 2. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 'Pathétique': II. Adagio cantabile 3. Beethoven: Für Elise 4. Rowland: The Man from Snowy River: Jessica's Theme 5. Nyman: The Piano: The Heart Asks Pleasure First 6. Chopin: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor 7. Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals: The Swan 8. Satie: Gnossienne No. 3 9. Kats-Chernin: Eliza Aria 10. Joplin: The Entertainer 11. Hisaishi: Howl's Moving Castle: Merry-Go-Round of Life 12. Tiersen: La Valse d'Amélie (Amélie's Waltz) 13. Einaudi: I giorni 14. Schubert: Impromptu in G-flat major 15. Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11: III. Rondo alla Turca 16. Morricone: Cinema Paradiso: Main Theme 17. Liszt: Liebestraum No. 3 18. JS Bach arr. Petri: Sheep May Safely Graze 19. Chopin: Étude Op. 10 No. 3 'Tristesse' CD4 1. Blake: Walking in the Air 2. Hisaishi: Spirited Away: One Summer's Day 3.-4. Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition: Promenade & I. Gnomus (Gnome) 5. Sculthorpe: Left Bank Waltz 6. Debussy: Préludes: The Girl with the Flaxen Hair 7. Liszt: Paganini Études No. 3 'La Campanella' 8. Brahms: Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118 No. 2 9. Kats-Chernin: Russian Rag 10. Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte 11. Schumann: Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood): Träumerei 12. Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 16 'Sonata facile': I. Allegro 13. Grainger: Country Gardens 14. Grieg: Wedding Day at Troldhaugen 15. Bartsch: Brightness in the Hills 16. Liszt: Consolation No. 3 17. Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3 No. 2 18. Glass: Etude No. 9 19. Glanville-Hicks: Etruscan Concerto: I. Promenade 20. Whitwell: Road Trip
Chicago Tribune
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: CSO's season opens at Ravinia, egging on hopes for the Pavilion renovation
The Chicago Symphony's return to Ravinia? Make it double. On July 11 and 12, the orchestra and chief festival conductor Marin Alsop opened its season with two twinned programs. Both began with engrossing contemporary American openers: Carlos Simon's 'AMEN!' on Friday, Jessie Montgomery's 'Strum' on Saturday. Those were followed by gripping performances of piano cornerstones: Rachmaninoff's 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini' played by Bruce Liu, then Gershwin's Concerto in F, played by Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Each ended, customarily, with a symphonic juggernaut: Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, 'Pathétique,' respectively. While the actual music varied between the two concerts, their overall takeaways did not. Prime among them: The Ravinia Festival's Pavilion renovation, to be unveiled next summer, cannot come soon enough. Thanks to a study commissioned by Threshold Acoustics, a consultant to the renovation, the festival is armed with more empirical data about the perils of its stage than ever before. Despite that, the pain points of an over-responsive Pavilion ached all weekend. Über-familiar repertoire works jiggering out of sync as often as they did is a sure sign orchestra musicians are having trouble hearing each other — and the same seemed to go for Alsop, sometimes twisting to get a straight sightline of both soloists' hands. All the while, nuclear brass and percussion sat somewhere on the spectrum between 'unbalanced' and 'unpleasant.' Of course, at Ravinia, CSO musicians are rarely just contending with a punishing acoustic. Lightning shuddered during the opening bars of Friday's 'Rite,' as though being conjured by the music itself. A mounting breeze rippled across the orchestra's music stands before a storm sprayed the Ravinia lawn. As though the weather was its own release, this very animalistic performance settled into more subtlety in its latter half, if never conquering those core ensemble issues. Thankfully, Liu and Thibaudet were undisputed peaks of a rocky weekend. Liu, 28, is a Chopin Competition winner of vertiginous agility, and he remained so on a sticky opening night. The young Canadian made Rachmaninoff's Olympian technical matters sound dégagé. Perhaps he lacked a sense of true sentimental abandon. Then again, hearing this heart-wrencher with its histrionics thoughtfully muted — even in the famous 18th variation — provided its own cool relief. For his encore, Liu followed the Rhapsody with yet another Paganini riff by a great virtuoso pianist-slash-composer: Liszt's superhuman 'La Campanella.' He doubled down on the savoir-faire that distinguished his Rachmaninoff, this time without emotional equivocation. The music poured from Liu unstoppered — as did the sweat from his temples, dramatically documented by Ravinia's mondo LED screens. Thibaudet brought the same troubadour spirit to the Ravinia stage the following evening. The best Gershwin accounts capture the effervescence of improvisation in the context of a wholly composed work. It's no surprise Thibaudet struck that balance, his phrasings feeling at once fresh and natural — this concerto is straight out of central casting for the French pianist. The transporting second-movement cadenza had the warming calm of a daydream. The movement ended with a tender moment between Thibaudet and guest principal flutist Minha Kim, locking eyes and swaying together for their duet. But for the most part, Saturday's was a harried meeting between orchestra and soloist, down to the bungled gong hit at the piece's climax. Afterwards, Thibaudet offered Brahms's Intermezzo in A Major as a salve, cutting through its buttery richness with the semplice touch of a lullaby. The ensuing 'Pathétique' wasn't exempt from the weekend's brass overzealousness, or the awkward fit of ensemble puzzle pieces. But on the whole, this was an interpretive highlight of the weekend, in keeping with Alsop's Tchaikovsky 5 two summers ago. She maintained the symphony's songfulness end-to-end, her tempos intuitive and often satisfying. An assured sense of super-structure gave Tchaikovsky's obsessive repetition direction and gravitas — discrete, punctuated utterances for woodwinds and brass at the end of the first movement, a weightier arrival in the last statement of the third. Oddly, though, that didn't apply to the most important moment of all: The trombone incantation and bass-led sighs ending the entire symphony passed more or less unremarked upon. Where Alsop excels consistently, however, is in her preparation of new repertoire, choosing pieces which unite popular appeal with striking craft. Simon's 'AMEN!' and Montgomery's 'Strum' are very much in that lineage. A rafter-shaking, crisply inventive tribute to the Black Pentecostal worship tradition, 'AMEN!' is the rare contemporary work that lives its name to the hilt. Blues harmonies sparkle under hammy, crooning trombones, blooming into a larger-than-life gospel cadence for tutti orchestra. The CSO's performance of 'Strum,' for string orchestra, was just as clean and confident — familiar fare for the ensemble, having played it before and worked with Montgomery for three seasons as its composer-in-residence. Even so, this was an impressive performance by any metric, sections sounding as unified as Montgomery's original version for string quintet, and featuring distinguished first-desk cameos aplenty. Now, if everything goes according to plan, imagine how all that could sound in a new Pavilion next summer. Amen, indeed.
Miami Herald
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Empty seats, no Dudamel: LA Phil opens its Hollywood Bowl season on somber notes
LOS ANGELES - Tuesday night the Los Angeles Philharmonic opened its 103rd season at the Hollywood Bowl. It was a beautiful evening. Lustrous twilight. Bright moon. Paradisal weather. Unusually light traffic. A program featuring Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev favorites. Cares could easily slip away once walking through welcoming and efficient security. Still, the real world is never far away from the Bowl. One of the highlights of this season has fallen victim to a baffling Venezuela travel ban. Gustavo Dudamel can no longer bring his Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in August. That now means that Dudamel will spend only a single week at the Bowl during his penultimate summer as L.A. Phil music director. Some of the Bowl's facilities have been dolled up a bit, but the amphitheater feels fragile after the January wildfires. The military on our streets has produced an L.A. edginess. Could that have contributed to the Bowl's unusually low opening-night attendance? Ticket sales were said to have been strong, making the many empty seats worrisome no-shows. What Tuesday night did herald was an L.A. Phil summer season with fewer splashy events than usual (no opera, for one), several conductors making their Bowl debuts and a good deal of Russian music. It was, moreover, a Tuesday that proved a relatively somber occasion, which, despite the lovely atmosphere, fit the mood of the times. Danish conductor and Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Thomas Sondergard made his L.A. Phil debut. There is temptation to place every debut, along with every conductor invited back to the Bowl, as a potential candidate for the long list, short list or whatever list to be the L.A. Phil's next music director after Dudamel departs for New York next year. But Bowl concerts tend to be hit-and-run events. Sondergard demonstrated a sense of grandeur, sometimes shattering, other times starchy. But there were all the opening-night kinks to be worked out with audio, video, an orchestra just coming back from vacation and coping with minimal rehearsal time. None of this played into Sondergard's or the Bowl's strengths as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Ballade in A Minor opened the program. The bland Ballade is a lesser score by the late 19th and early 20th century British composer who deserves a revival for his more substantial works. For Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the subdued blue shell lighting suddenly turned a shockingly vivid orange. Amplification met the glaring illumination with the evening's piano soloist, Kirill Gerstein, unnaturally dominating a sonically repressed orchestra. The video monitors went their own crazy way, whether unmusically flipping from close-ups of fingers and lips or attempting surreal cornball special effects. It was all too much (and in the orchestra's case, too little), but Gerstein is a gripping pianist in any situation. He has just released an iridescent recording of a piece written for him and vibraphonist Gary Burton by the late jazz great Chick Corea. Thomas Adés wrote his heady Piano Concerto for him. Of all the great recordings of Rachmaninoff's over-recorded Second Piano Concerto, Gerstein's recent one with the Berlin Philharmonic may be the most powerful. Every note, important or incidental, he hit in the Rhapsody had a purposeful intensity. What you could hear of Sondergard's contribution was a starkly effective percussive response from the orchestra. It was, under any conditions, a striking performance. Video and audio settled down for Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony, which was written in 1944, a decade after Rachmaninoff wrote his Rhapsody. The world had momentously changed in those 10 years. Both composers fled Russia after the 1917 revolution, but their relationships with their native land was very different. Although Rachmaninoff never returned, he remained thoroughly old-world Russian. He wrote his Rhapsody in idyllic Switzerland, before immigrating to the U.S., where he died in Beverly Hills in 1943. Prokofiev spent years in Paris and in the U.S. as a modernist, but ultimately Mother Russia was too strong of a pull, and he returned despite the artistic restrictions of Stalinist Russia. His Fifth is a war symphony, written at a time of great nationalism, and it premiered in Moscow in January 1945 just after Russia had routed the Nazi invaders. Sondergard's performance lacked the soul of, say, André Previn. (Previn performed the Fifth at his first concert as L.A. Phil music director in 1985). Here, threatening thunder of the monumental first movement was followed by threatening lightning in the faster scherzo followed by the threateningly dark cloudy skies in the slow movement followed by the victorious bombing of the final movement. The overpowering bigness of this performance happened on the day that the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to Ukraine in its war with Russia. Three years ago, some questioned whether Russian music should be performed at all. Several other orchestras canceled performances of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture." The Bowl's annual "Tchaikovsky Spectacular" retained the Overture although the program began with the Ukrainian national anthem. This summer Russian music abounds at the Bowl with the usual Tchaikovsky, a full week of Rachmaninoff, along with more Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Stravinsky. It was with Tchaikovsky that Dudamel made his U.S. debut at the Bowl, the rest being history. Russian music has, in fact, been a mainstay of the Bowl for 103 years. Russian performers and composers helped to make L.A. what it is artistically today. And how Russian composers, those who stayed and those who left, dealt with militarism, nationalism and the threat of repression has never felt more relevant. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Los Angeles Times
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Empty seats, no Dudamel: L.A. Phil opens its Hollywood Bowl season on somber notes
Tuesday night the Los Angeles Philharmonic opened its 103rd season at the Hollywood Bowl. It was a beautiful evening. Lustrous twilight. Bright moon. Paradisal weather. Unusually light traffic. A program featuring Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev favorites. Cares could easily slip away once walking through welcoming and efficient security. Still, the real world is never far away from the Bowl. One of the highlights of this season has fallen victim to a baffling Venezuela travel ban. Gustavo Dudamel can no longer bring his Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in August. That now means that Dudamel will spend only a single week at the Bowl during his penultimate summer as L.A. Phil music director. Some of the Bowl's facilities have been dolled up a bit, but the amphitheater feels fragile after the January wildfires. The military on our streets has produced an L.A. edginess. Could that have contributed to the Bowl's unusually low opening-night attendance? Ticket sales were said to have been strong, making the many empty seats worrisome no-shows. What Tuesday night did herald was an L.A. Phil summer season with fewer splashy events than usual (no opera, for one), several conductors making their Bowl debuts and a good deal of Russian music. It was, moreover, a Tuesday that proved a relatively somber occasion, which, despite the lovely atmosphere, fit the mood of the times. Danish conductor and Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Thomas Sondergard made his L.A. Phil debut. There is temptation to place every debut, along with every conductor invited back to the Bowl, as a potential candidate for the long list, short list or whatever list to be the L.A. Phil's next music director after Dudamel departs for New York next year. But Bowl concerts tend to be hit-and-run events. Sondergard demonstrated a sense of grandeur, sometimes shattering, other times starchy. But there were all the opening-night kinks to be worked out with audio, video, an orchestra just coming back from vacation and coping with minimal rehearsal time. None of this played into Sondergard's or the Bowl's strengths as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Ballade in A Minor opened the program. The bland Ballade is a lesser score by the late 19th and early 20th century British composer who deserves a revival for his more substantial works. For Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the subdued blue shell lighting suddenly turned a shockingly vivid orange. Amplification met the glaring illumination with the evening's piano soloist, Kirill Gerstein, unnaturally dominating a sonically repressed orchestra. The video monitors went their own crazy way, whether unmusically flipping from close-ups of fingers and lips or attempting surreal cornball special effects. It was all too much (and in the orchestra's case, too little), but Gerstein is a gripping pianist in any situation. He has just released an iridescent recording of a piece written for him and vibraphonist Gary Burton by the late jazz great Chick Corea. Thomas Adés wrote his heady Piano Concerto for him. Of all the great recordings of Rachmaninoff's over-recorded Second Piano Concerto, Gerstein's recent one with the Berlin Philharmonic may be the most powerful. Every note, important or incidental, he hit in the Rhapsody had a purposeful intensity. What you could hear of Sondergard's contribution was a starkly effective percussive response from the orchestra. It was, under any conditions, a striking performance. Video and audio settled down for Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony, which was written in 1944, a decade after Rachmaninoff wrote his Rhapsody. The world had momentously changed in those 10 years. Both composers fled Russia after the 1917 revolution, but their relationships with their native land was very different. Although Rachmaninoff never returned, he remained thoroughly old-world Russian. He wrote his Rhapsody in idyllic Switzerland, before immigrating to the U.S., where he died in Beverly Hills in 1943. Prokofiev spent years in Paris and in the U.S. as a modernist, but ultimately Mother Russia was too strong of a pull, and he returned despite the artistic restrictions of Stalinist Russia. His Fifth is a war symphony, written at a time of great nationalism, and it premiered in Moscow in January 1945 just after Russia had routed the Nazi invaders. Sondergard's performance lacked the soul of, say, André Previn. (Previn performed the Fifth at his first concert as L.A. Phil music director in 1985). Here, threatening thunder of the monumental first movement was followed by threatening lightning in the faster scherzo followed by the threateningly dark cloudy skies in the slow movement followed by the victorious bombing of the final movement. The overpowering bigness of this performance happened on the day that the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to Ukraine in its war with Russia. Three years ago, some questioned whether Russian music should be performed at all. Several other orchestras canceled performances of Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture.' The Bowl's annual 'Tchaikovsky Spectacular' retained the Overture although the program began with the Ukrainian National Anthem. This summer Russian music abounds at the Bowl with the usual Tchaikovsky (which will be part of the 'Classical Pride' program Thursday), a full week of Rachmaninoff, along with more Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Stravinsky. It was with Tchaikovsky that Dudamel made his U.S. debut at the Bowl, the rest being history. Russian music has, in fact, been a mainstay of the Bowl for 103 years. Russian performers and composers helped to make L.A. what it is artistically today. And how Russian composers, those who stayed and those who left, dealt with militarism, nationalism and the threat of repression has never felt more relevant.
