About MiCLatest UpdatesConcert ListConcert-ToursPast ConcertsConcert ProducersMusic Sheets Submit a ConcertContact MICWhat Is Film Music?Concert Music based on film musicSoundtrack RadiosLinksPrivacy Notes
Get all concert-info as soon as it's published with our
feed.
23 March 2025 London (United Kingdom)
Bartók & Rachmaninov
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko - Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
Program Info: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Vasily Petrenko, conductor Bruce Liu, piano
Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Vasily Petrenko conducts this spirited programme.
Rachmaninov’s world was turned completely upside down by the Great War. Severed from his roots, he fled Russia and began a career as a globetrotting pianist.
His devilish set of variations, performed here by Bruce Liu – winner of the 2021 International Chopin Competition – embodies this nomadic life: written in Switzerland, premiered in America, based on a tune by Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini and infused with Rachmaninov’s own Russian style.
Composers Erich Korngold and Béla Bartók were also forced by politics to leave their homes: both fled from fascism to the New World, and Korngold’s swashbuckling film score is practically a hymn to freedom.
Bartók’s spectacular Concerto for Orchestra, meanwhile, is more than just a multi-coloured showcase, it’s a struggle between darkness and light, crowned by a mighty shout of joy.
Repertoire Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Main theme; Reunion; Finale from Sea Hawk Sergey Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
feed.