Within its Great Performers cycle, the Fundación Scherzo presents one of the most anticipated evenings of the season: pianist Kirill Gerstein (pictured), accompanied by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León under the direction of Thierry Fischer, will perform the monumental Piano Concerto No 3 in D minor, op. 30, by Sergei Rachmaninov.
The programme is completed by Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Nap of a Faun and Richard Wagner’s symphonic suite on The Gold of the Rhine in an arrangement by Henk de Vlieger.
Three visions of sound art will follow in this appointment: the impressionist symbolism of Debussy, Wagnerian mythology and, after the pause, the pure emotion of Rachmaninov, where music is sufficient to itself. It will be in this last work where the night reaches its climax: a dialogue between the piano and the orchestra that condenses the nostalgia of exile, the excesses of virtuosity and the depth of a romantic soul that refuses to disappear.
Premiered by Rachmaninov himself in 1909 in New York under the direction of Gustav Mahler, the Third Concerto is one of the tops of the piano repertoire. His legendary fame is due both to his extreme technical difficulty and to his emotional strength, capable of transitioning from rectitude to catharsis with an almost organic logic. Few works symbolize so well the end of an era: in their compasses still resonate echoes of the nineteenth century, but already one perceives the melancholy of a world that fades.
Kirill Gerstein, one of the most unique pianists of our time, will approach this score with the depth and rigor that characterize his career. His training -which combines the Russian tradition, the freedom of jazz and the intellectual pursuit of contemporary music- turns his performance into an unpredictable and living experience. Gerstein does not touch Rachmaninov: he interrogates him, inhabits him, renews him. At its side, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, directed by Thierry Fischer, will offer the orchestral counterpoint with the transparency, balance and intensity that have defined his current artistic stage.
Concert 3 is not imposed by the technical deployment, but by its emotional architecture. Its famous beginning -a simple melody, almost liturgical, entrusted to the solo piano- prelude a journey towards exaltation. The second movement, a contained lyricism intermezzo, gives way to an overflowing finale of energy and contrast, in which the piano and orchestra intertwine in a dance that alternates vertigo and light. In the words of the composer himself, “music must be born from the heart and address the heart”. Tickets can be purchased at this link.