Chords that sound like chimes, getting louder and louder. The beginning of Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor is famous. With this magnificent concerto, marked by a fateful tone, the composer, born in 1873, fought his way out of an almost four-year creative crisis. Nikolai Luganski has recorded all four concertos and numerous solo works by his Russian compatriot – with his technical mastery and creative power, he is regarded as the ideal Rachmaninov interpreter. The fate of the damned “Flying Dutchman”, travelling restlessly on a ghost ship, in the end turns out to be a happy one. Rising harp sounds herald transfiguration. In contrast to his Sixth Symphony, Peter Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, which opens with a fateful sounding motif in the clarinets, also ends in triumph rather than tragedy. Klosters Music ends with trumpet fanfares and timpani rolls!

Jérémie Rhorer, conductor
Nikolai Luganski, piano
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen

This concert is supported by an anonymous donation.