Overview

Russian music —and Rachmaninoff’s oeuvre in particular—often combines a veneer of composed inwardness with a core of unstoppable, fervent passion. Few musicians have managed to convey this peculiar duality as successfully as the pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev, whose sophisticated taste and consummate artistry make him one of most ideal performers of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody. In the programme’s second half, Lucas Karytinos leads a performance of Strauss’s colossal tone poem, in which the composer makes use of exuberant orchestral timbres to wrestle with… himself, his dreams, his conflicts and his triumphs!