October 27, 2023 | Zaryadye Concert Hall
XII Moscow Music Festival «Vladimir Spivakov Invites…»
Soloists: Ekaterina Mechetina, piano
Philipp Kopachevsky, piano
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Fauré. Pavane, Op. 50
Debussy. Clair de Lune (orch. by André Caplet)
Poulenc. Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, FP 61
Scriabin. Symphony No. 3 in C minor (Le Divin Poème), Op. 43
The third night of the Vladimir Spivakov Moscow Festival is an original selection of seminal music works written by Russian and French composers. The program will start with two extremely popular orchestral miniatures – the exquisite Pavane by Gabriel Fauré (a reminiscence of ancient ceremonial court dances) and Clair de lune by Claude Debussy, a gem of French Impressionism music – an alluring landscape in sounds, the name of which was taken from Paul Verlaine's poem. The National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will perform the piece in André Caplet's orchestration.
They will be followed by Francis Poulenc's Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, a witty virtuoso opus commissioned in the 1930s by the Princess Edmond de Polignac for the International Society of Contemporary Music in Venice. It was premiered on September 5, 1932, played by the author himself with his childhood friend Jacques Fevriér and the La Scala Orchestra under the baton of Désiré Defauw. Poulenc called the second movement of the Concerto 'Mozart's poetic portrayal'.
At the Vladimir Spivakov Festival, the bright soloists in the Concerto will be much-loved artists Ekaterina Mechetina and Philipp Kopachevsky who both studied piano with the giant of Russian piano teaching professor Sergei Dorensky at the Moscow Conservatory.
The apex of the concert will be Alexander Scriabin's Third Symphony (Le Divin Poème) – a monumental work reflecting the author's philosophical and religious searches. The composer foreworded the score with a lengthy literary program depicting his considerations about a 'God-man', divine 'I', his overcoming passions and aspiring for 'God play' that is creativity as the highest activity of a free human spirit. Portentous sublime themes, an enlarged orchestra and a complicated dramaturgy, which combines the principles of a symphony and a one-movement symphonic poem, mark this work.