Het Concertgebouworkest speelt Rachmaninoff

Rachmaninoff

A tribute to Serge Rachmaninoff: with two Russian emigrants on stage, that is bound to turn out well. Rachmaninoff's forced emigration to America severed him from his Russian roots, but modern American life barely affected his music: Rachmaninoff always remained audibly a Russian Romantic. In the United States, he wrote some of his most irresistible pieces. We are also introduced to music by Elena Langer, who emigrated from Russia to London and built a career as an opera composer. We hear the suite from her successful 2016 opera Figaro Gets a Divorce .

Alexander Melnikov

Rachmaninoff's dazzling and elegant Paganini Rhapsody is actually a piano concerto. The catchy opening melody returns constantly, but always in a new guise. Rachmaninoff himself performed the work with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1908 – it was a triumph. Following in his footsteps is certainly entrusted to pianist Alexander Melnikov. In the Symphonic Dances, the elderly Rachmaninoff looks back on his career one last time. The work hints at Russian church music from his youth, but also at the big band music he heard in America.