Experience the passion of the Russian romantics as Eckart Preu conducts “Untamed Fury” on Saturday, November 14 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, November 15 at 3:00 pm at Stamford’s Palace Theatre. The concert of Arensky’s Tchaikovsky Variations, Scriabin’s only Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s famous Symphony No.5 will leave audiences pondering Russia, Fate, and a Storm-Driven Horde of Demons.
Pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine will make his Symphony debut. The concerts are sponsored by JPMorgan Private Bank on Saturday and Ernst & Young on Sunday.
Come early for free guided listening activities. At “Behind the Baton” Maestro Preu shares the secrets and stories behind the music one hour prior to each program. On Sundays at 1:45 pm children age 6-12 are invited to a free MusiKids program led by a Symphony musician. Tickets are $22 - $65, young adults (to age 35) are only $19 and on Sunday Kids Come Free! For concert details or to purchase tickets visit www.StamfordSymphony.org or call 203 325 4466.
The dark soul of the Russian Romantics
Eckart Preu is looking forward to getting swept away by this program of Russian romantics. “Each of these composers had that dark Russian soul. They were self-destructive, eccentric and depressed. But the music is transporting, even life-affirming. Anton Arensky was one of the Russian composers who were pupils of the great Rimski-Korsakov and who came under the spell of Tchaikovksy’s highly dramatic music. It was a melody by Tchaikovsky that inspired his most successful work. It’s based on a single theme that goes through an incredible journey of brilliant evolution marked with charm, elegance and virtuosity.” Arensky retired young from performing to spend more time composing, gambling, and drinking. He died soon after.
Extraordinarily eccentric, Aleksander Scriabin reveled in a highly expressive musical language. He considered himself a visionary and musical messiah. Others described him as a charlatan, a neurotic degenerate and a total failure. “The Symphony will be performing one of Scriabin’s early works,” explains Maestro Preu. “His only Piano Concerto was written before the composer became truly eccentric, at a time when he still worshipped the lush romantic music of Chopin. Scriabin was in a hurry to finish the piece; it was completed just before his wedding. He needed a little help from his teacher Rimski-Korsakov to complete the orchestration in time.” Scriabin had a neurological condition known as synesthesia which caused him to sense each musical note as a specific color and odor. One of his last works attempts to create music that combines the stimulation of all the senses, including music, speech, color, aroma and touch, creating a grand synthesis of the arts. It was to be presented in a vast Indian temple by thousands of musicians dressed in white. Sadly, Scriabin died suddenly of a simple infection before his dream could be realized.
Pyotor Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s dynamic, emotional and sweeping Symphony No.5 is one of the climaxes of Russian music as well as this emotionally charged concert. Throughout his career Tchaikovsky swung between heights of extreme inspiration and depths of depression and self-doubt. In the spring of 1888 Tchaikovsky told his brother that he had written himself out and he had no inclination to compose. Inspiration soon took over and the massive Fifth Symphony was finished in a few short months. Response to the Symphony, as to most of Tchaikovsky’s works, was mixed at first. The St. Petersburg audience liked it, critics panned it, and other composers were envious. This response was disheartening for the depressive Tchaikovsky, “I have come to the conclusion that it is a failure… It was clear to me that the applause and ovations were not for this but for other works of mine, and that the Symphony itself will never please the public.” Tchaikovsky could not have been more wrong. His Fifth Symphony is one of the most popular works in all of classical music.
The melancholy and self-doubt Tchaikovsky experienced when he started composing the Symphony can be heard in the piece. Brighter moments wrestle with darker themes until a battle between darkness and light occurs. One critic described the experience as listening to a storm-driven horde of demons. The final trumpet blasts of the Symphony signal a happier end than Tchaikovsky himself could expect. While tradition dictates that the composer died of cholera, many speculate that his life ended in suicide.
Russian pianist makes Symphony debut
A more cheerful proponent of Russian culture is the outstanding young pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine. He burst onto the U.S. concert scene at the age of nineteen after his award-winning appearance at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He has won prizes around the world: at the St. Petersburg International (Russia), Tivoli International (Denmark), Andorra International, Jose Iturbi (Valencia), Maria Canals (Barcelona), Shanghai International (China), Calabria International (Italy), Guerrero Foundation (Madrid), Ignacio Cervantes (Havana), Pilar Bayona (Zaragoza), and the Panama International piano competitions. In North America he has triumphed at the New Orleans International, Cleveland International, and Montreal International music competitions.
Born in Russia to a family of professional musicians, Alexandre began piano lessons with his mother Ludmila Philippova and was performing internationally while still a teenager. His all-Prokofiev program with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the Kiev National Philharmonic Orchestra was described in the Russian and Ukrainian press as "…sprightly and at the same time astonishingly inspired…Moutouzkine performed not only with mastery, but also with magnificent brilliance and energy…" To date, Alexandre has toured throughout Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Italy as well as countries throughout North and South America. Recent performances included a tour across the United States and Europe including Rome, Madrid and London. Alexandre completed his musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music in 2006, earning a Masters of Music, Professional Studies certificate and Artist Diploma.
