A6 Rachmaninoff. Shostakovich

The sixth evening of the orchestral cycle brings together the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Dmitri Shostakovich, two towering figures of Russian music. While Rachmaninoff  left his homeland for good after the revolution in 1917, Shostakovich spent his whole life in Russia (the Soviet Union). There were also differences in the two composers’ musical outlooks. Rachmaninoff is described as the last Romantic; Shostakovich’s musical language drew from tradition, but he also embellished it with 20^th-century novelties.

Rachmaninoff never fully adapted to life in exile, despite being an internationally recognised pianist. Shostakovich had to cope with much graver problems. He was continually under surveillance and criticized by the Stalinist regime, in particular for his more progressive compositions, which were accused of formalism and even alienation from the reality of the socialist period. Paradoxically, this criticism was also levelled at his Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, which Shostakovich wrote to celebrate the end of the Second World War. It is a work filled with joy, levity and a number of interesting, often long solos.

We will hear Rachmaninoff’s one-movement Youth Symphony in D minor and his crowning achievement, the monumental Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in D minor.

The soloist will be the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski, whose recording of Rachmaninov’s music was awarded the prestigious Diapason d´Or.