April 14, 2022 | Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International Performing Arts Center
Soloist – Philipp Kopachevsky, piano
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Chopin. Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra in E minor, Op. 11
Tchaikovsky. Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
On April 14, Vladimir Spivakov and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will beguile music lovers with works by composers of the Romanticism Era. In the first part there will be played the First Piano Concerto by Frédéric Chopin nick-named “a piano poet” by his contemporaries. The plentifulness of mood subtleties, the affluence of colors with visible austerity of the means of expression, the limitless lyricism of the Concerto still spellbind the audience as they did at the premiere on October 11, 1830, in Warsaw. Chopin wrote that the music reflected his admiration for Bellini's operas. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in his highly appreciative description of Chopin's Concertos, noted that they demand from the player “softness and bead-like touch, mellifluousness, taste and grace in the elaboration of details”.
All these qualities will be revealed by pianist Philipp Kopachesvsky, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, awardee of eight important international contests and special-prize holder of the 16th Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition. His renditions, acclaimed by critics, present an “amalgam of romantic performance with analytical comprehension of the music played”.
The kernel of the concert will be Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony in Vladimir Spivakov's seminal interpretation considered to be one of the most poignant ever. It is one of the composer's most tragic works written in the period of his most intensive and profound contemplations about the main questions of being, that is about moral and faith, an artist's duty and mission, arduous life and dignified death, fight against or submission to fate. “In my opinion it is a spiritual work,” - says Vladimir Spivakov, adding that the performance of the Fifth Symphony “requires immense energy”.