Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, Op 45 (1940)
Tugan Sokhiev, Conductor
Berliner Philharmoniker
I. Non Allegro - 0:00
II. Andante con moto - 11:56
III. Lento Assai - Allegro Vivace - 21:52
Recorded and broadcast live from the Berliner Philharmonie on 21 January 2012.
From Wikipedia: "The Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, is an orchestral suite in three movements. Completed in 1940, it is Sergei Rachmaninoff's last composition. The work summarizes Rachmaninoff's compositional output.
The work is fully representative of the composer's later style with its curious, shifting harmonies, the almost Prokofiev-like grotesquerie of the outer movements and the focus on individual instrumental tone colors throughout (highlighted by his use of an alto saxophone in the opening dance). The opening three-note motif, introduced quietly but soon reinforced by heavily staccato chords and responsible for much of the movement's rhythmic vitality, is reminiscent of the Queen of Shemakha's theme in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel, the only music by another composer that he had taken out of Russia with him in 1917.
The Dances allowed him to indulge in a nostalgia for the Russia he had known, much as he had done in the Third Symphony, as well as to effectively sum up his lifelong fascination with ecclesiastical chants. In the first dance, he quotes the opening theme of his First Symphony, itself derived from motifs characteristic of Russian church music. In the finale he quotes both the Dies Irae and the chant 'Blessed be the Lord' (Blagosloven yesi, Gospodi) from his All-Night Vigil."
From Wikipedia: "Tugan Taymourazovitch Sokhiev (Ossetian: Сохиты Таймуразы фырт Тугъан / Soxity Tajmurazy fyrt Tuhan, Russian: Туга́н Таймура́зович Сохиев, born 1977, Vladikavkaz, Ossetia) is a Russian-Ossetian conductor.
Sokhiev began piano studies at age 7. He first conducted at age 17, inspired by Anatoly Briskin, the conductor of the North Ossetia State Philharmonic Orchestra. He subsequently attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he was one of the last students of Ilya Musin before the latter's death in 1999. Sokhiev's first opera as a conductor was in a production of La bohème in Iceland."
From Wikipedia: "The Berlin Philharmonic (German: Berliner Philharmoniker), is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany and is consistently ranked as one of the best orchestras in the world.
In 2006, ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of 'top ten European Orchestras', after the Vienna Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, while in 2008 it was voted the world's number two orchestra in a survey among leading international music critics organized by the British magazine Gramophone (behind the Concertgebouw). The BPO supports several chamber music ensembles."
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Sources:
imslp.org/wiki/Symphonic_Dances,_Op.45_(Rachmaninoff,_Sergei%29
www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/concert/2504
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonic_Dances_(Rachmaninoff%29
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tugan_Sokhiev
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Philharmonic