London Philharmonic Orchestra; Rachmaninoff: Inside Out

Rachmaninoff: Inside Out
Jorge Luis Prats performs Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2

Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2
Rachmaninoff The Bells (Choral Symphony)

Vasily Petrenko conductor
Jorge Luis Prats piano
Anna Samuil soprano
Daniil Shtoda tenor
Andrei Bondarenko bass*
London Philharmonic Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra

Konstantin Balmont’s Russian take on Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Bells was a perfect find for Rachmaninoff. It combined his fascination with fate and eternity with ideas ripe for musical conversion – the mysterious sound world of bells and his own preoccupation with the twisting, haunting plainchant theme, the Dies Irae. His setting of the poem in a vast choral symphony depicted the silvery brightness of birth, the golden browns of marriage, the dark stillness and muted serenity of peace through death. Vasily Petrenko conducts The Bells after the fascinating syncopations of Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements and Rachmaninoff’s own soaring, life-changing Second Piano Concerto.

In co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.

*Please note a change to the artist as originally advertised.