Lucerne Festival Orchestra 3

In 1897, the young Sergei Rachmaninoff experienced one of the darkest moments of his life. His First Symphony was premiered in St. Petersburg. Though Alexander Glazunov, his celebrated colleague, was the conductor, he had absolutely no control over the orchestra. Rachmaninoff was treated to a barrage of sounds that had little to do with the score. Naturally, the audience disliked the work, and the reviews were devastating. Rachmaninoff felt as if he had been struck by lightning: for three years he was unable to compose at all. When the Lucerne Festival Orchestra plays this remarkable symphony, it will be hard to comprehend what happened back then. Riccardo Chailly considers it a masterpiece. He pairs it with another early stroke of genius by the composer, the tone poem The Rock, which moved Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to tears shortly before his death in the fall of 1893. And then there is the magnificent Paganini Rhapsody, which Rachmaninoff composed in Hertenstein near Lucerne in 1934: a showpiece of bizarre demonic and dreamy melodiousness. Beatrice Rana, the exceptionally gifted Italian virtuoso, will perform this breathtakingly magical piece.