November 1, 2023 | Tchaikovsky Concert Hall
Subscription series No. 24: «National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia»
Soloist – Nikolai Lugansky, piano
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Rachmaninoff. Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra in C minor, Op. 18
Tchaikovsky. Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

Vladimir Spivakov and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia are opening their own subscription series in the Moscow Philharmonic Society with a program of Russian Classic masterpieces. Part I will feature Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The soloist will be the renowned pianist Nikolai Lugansky, People’s Artist of Russia.

The pianist cites Rachmaninoff among his most loved and congenial authors whose works he started to play already in the music school. «Rachmaninoff’s music is multi-faceted: it may be heard in a wisp of wind or a river flow. But most essential are strong human feelings», says the pianist. «The most popular of Rachmaninoff’s Concertos, the Second, was written when the composer was recovering after a creative crisis, and his return to form turned into a triumph. The opus is the symbol of Rachmaninoff’s rebirth, the music very different to what he had written before. The oeuvre of such an immense melodic and harmonic beauty could not help but being admired by all audiences.»

In the second part by the signature interpretation of the Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. “In my view it is a sacred score”, – says the Maestro. The Fifth is one of the most tragic works by Tchaikovsky written in the period of his most intense and deep contemplations about main questions of being, about morality and faith, duty and mission of an artist, life and death, whether to struggle or to submit to fate.