Lugansky . Berezovsky - Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances, two pianos

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Symphonic Dances, for orchestra or 2 pianos, Op. 45 (1940-1942) Nikolai Lugansky, Boris Berezovsky 2008 Verbier Festival First Dance - [0:00] A (Non allegro) [2:44] B (poco a poco rallentando - Lento) [6:55] A’ (A tempo più mosso - Tempo I) [9:30] Coda (cantabile) Second Dance - [10:45] A (Andante con moto (Tempo di valse)) [14:27] B (Tempo precedente) [16:10] A’ (Tempo I) Last Dance - [19:18] A (Lento assai - Allegro vivace - Lento assai) [23:32] B (Lento assai - Lento assai ma agitato) [26:54] A’ (Allegro vivace) [29:25] Finale - “Christ is Risen” Theme [29:56] “Alliluya” “…On the one hand, the Dances contain a number of self-quotations: most notably, just before the coda of the first section, Rachmaninov hauntingly quotes the main theme of the first movement of his Symphony No 1, at the time (1940) completely unknown to anyone apart from its composer. In the finale he quotes extensively from part of his ‘Vespers’, the All-Night Vigil of 1915, Op 37, arguably his greatest work. But on the other hand, this last work of Rachmaninov’s reveals a new and vibrant voice in his music, expressed in so truly symphonic manner as almost to deserve the title of ‘Symphony No 4’. The ‘Dies irae’, present in almost all of Rachmaninov’s orchestral works as well as in many solo piano pieces, is fleetingly quoted, but in the coda of the finale, marked ‘Alleluia’, it is swirled into silence by the virile and invigorating resolution: D minor, the ultimate tonality for this composer, triumphs over all on the hectic, tumultuous and life-asserting final pages. The music also contains elements of jazz, and the composition swaggers, supreme in its own self-confidence and burning with a fierce inner light. This is manifestly not music by a composer who had written himself out, but an indestructible and inspiriting musical statement of profound and irreducible power. Although both versions possess the same opus number, Rachmaninov originally intended the work to be an orchestral piece; but it is also true that the original two-piano version is so complete in itself, so manifestly conceived in two-piano terms, that in the duo version the work is utterly convincing and becomes arguably the greatest work for the medium written in the twentieth century.” - Robert Matthew-Walker