London Philharmonic Orchestra

Rachmaninoff: Inside Out
Abduraimov performs Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

JTI Friday Series

Wagner Overture, Tannhäuser
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4

David Zinman: conductor
Behzod Abduraimov: piano
London Philharmonic Orchestra

When Serge Rachmaninoff heard the famous Caprice in A minor by the mysterious ‘devil’s violinist’ Paganini, he fell under the spell of its tonal to-and-fro and swaggering rhythmic shape. In 1934, Rachmaninoff set about examining, twisting, refracting and elaborating the tune into his spectacular Rhapsody that, once finished, proved diabolical in the truest sense of the word. Some 50 years earlier Tchaikovsky had felt a strange external presence, too: the weighty hand of fate upon his shoulder. Tchaikovsky’s response was a symphony completely unlike anything he had created before: the most gripping and fevered symphonic tussle with fate since Beethoven’s Fifth.

In co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.