April 6, 2024 | Svetlanov Hall of the MIPAC
"Russian Classics" Subsctiption series
Soloist – Ekaterina Mechetina, piano
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Rachmaninoff. Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra in C minor, Op. 18
Skriabin. Symphony No. 3 in C minor ("Le divin poème"), Op. 43
Vladimir Spivakov and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia are completing the Russian Classics series with a program of works by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin.
Part I will feature Rachmaninoff's famous Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Merited Artist of Russia Ekaterina Mechetina as the soloist. This opus is one of the most loved by the pianist since her younger years; she has played it many a time with various orchestras and conductors and recently summoned her experience in her book “Master Class. The Piano Concerto No.2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff”. The author, a professor of the Moscow Conservatory, addresses this thorough study with a scrupulous analysis of its performing to her students and young colleagues.
Ekaterina Mechetina: 'My attitude towards Rachmaninoff is very intimate. He was a pure and simple man, with a very hard core... In his every personal deed, I find something amazing. Pianist Josef Hofmann wrote about him that he had been made of steel and gold: with steel in his hands, and gold in his heart. I have got many ties with his music. Not only the impressions I feel when listening his music, but also my personal defeats... He has a very special quality: he teaches us to love. He lets us undergo painlessly human emotions at their peaks. To sense grief and ache without losing our dears. Or incredible apexes of happiness even if only imagined.'
This opus happened to bring together Ekaterina Mechetina and Vladimir Spivakov, the acquaintance that has grown into a close friendship and a many-year collaboration. It was the maestro who got to be the first reader of her book.
In Part II the orchestra directed by Vladimir Spivakov will perform the Third Symphony (“Le divin poème”) by Scriabin – a monumental work reflecting author's philosophical and religious searches. The composer prefaced the score with an extended literary text where he detailed his thoughts about a god-man, “divine I”, suppressing passions and aiming at a “divine play” that is creative arts as the pinnacle of activities of a free human spirit.