Stravinsky and Rachmaninov

Program

More about the concert

PEAK ROMANCE

The acclaimed international artist Boris Giltburg is coming to Umeå to welcome spring with one of the world’s most beloved piano concertos: Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto from 1901, the sweeping, grandly romantic magnum opus of piano art. The evening also features a newly composed work by the German-Swedish composer Lisa Streich, as well as playful, card-game-inspired classicism by Igor Stravinsky.

Just as the spring light begins to shine, Greek conductor Zoe Zeniodi arrives at the Norrlands Opera with a truly world-class program. The evening begins with The Kiss on the Hand by the Swedish-German composer Lisa Streich from 2019. Streich is among the new generation of composers with a keen ear for the possibilities of sound to take on different “textures.” Although she has not yet turned 40, she has already written commissioned works for the Berlin Philharmonic. Her use of what she herself calls “moldy chords” offers a glimpse into her unique and elusive musical world. In The Kiss on the Hand It was the deaf Beethoven who served as the inspiration. Streich got the idea from one of the old titan’s conversation notebooks, where she found the statement: “Kissing hands is not good.” From this sentence, she constructs a fictional ballroom filled with many hand-kissing suitors, where the orchestra imitates the deaf Beethoven’s dancing feet. The listener, she imagines, finds themselves inside Beethoven’s ear canal.

And hands are an equally important element in the next piece, Igor Stravinsky’s poker game: *Jeu de Cartes*. A short ballet piece divided into three “deals,” just like in a game of poker, in which the dancers represent jokers, queens, and kings of various suits. The ballet, written in the 1930s during the composer’s neoclassical period, is characterized—as so often—by mischievous nods to classical form, but above all reflects its composer’s fiery and rhythm-driven temperament. Perhaps Stravinsky was inspired by Walt Disney’s imaginative, dancing cards in the iconic Mickey Mouse card-themed shorts from the same period. Who knows?

After the intermission, it will be time for the evening’s main event: Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. This music, with its melodic drive and romantic passion, stands in stark contrast to the concert’s two more intellectually oriented opening pieces. The Second Piano Concerto was composed toward the end of a long period of depression; for the composer, it became a way out of the darkness and self-doubt triggered, among other things, by the lukewarm reception of his First Symphony in the late 1890s. With the new piano concerto, he was back on the concert stage—and with a vengeance. The premiere in late fall 1901 was met with acclaim from both the audience and critics. And it still has the same immediate, almost hypnotic effect on its listeners today. Most who have heard it experience an almost immediate melodic rapture when the strings break in after the evocative chord changes of the opening measures in the piano’s lower register. The Second Piano Concerto is an unmistakable hit, and Rachmaninoff’s, in addition to “Vocliasen,” by far his best-known work. The breathtakingly beautiful adagio, with its lyrical melody, has served as a leitmotif in both Hollywood and pop ballads (such as “All by Myself ” by Eric Carmen, 1975).

To tackle this masterpiece, star pianist Boris Giltburg has come to the Norrlandsoperan—a first for the opera house. The Israeli pianist has become one of the most sought-after interpreters of Rachmaninoff of our time. He says he absorbed the music from an early age during his childhood in the Soviet Union. Giltburg’s ability to combine technical brilliance with passionate sincerity is considered the reason why he has become such a beloved interpreter of the Russian titan’s piano music. Tonight, the Umeå audience will finally have the chance to experience his musical magic.