Rachmaninoff — Gala

On January 28, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory hosted a concert featuring stars of the classical music world, dedicated to the magnificent music of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Performed by a symphony orchestra and internationally acclaimed prize-winning pianists Anastasia and Maria Makhamendrikova, the programme featured musical masterpieces that have become part of the golden heritage of classical music. Among them were Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

The concert was accompanied by the State Kremlin Orchestra, conducted by one of Russia’s most sought-after conductors, Konstantin Chudovsky.

The programme showcased the remarkable diversity and richness of the great composer’s musical legacy.

The evening opened with the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40. Rachmaninoff began working on his first sketches for the concerto in pre-revolutionary Moscow, but completed the work only a decade later.

This monumental composition, permeated by a sense of anxiety and the chaos of a rapidly changing world, ultimately gives way to a confident affirmation of life. It continues the lyrical and Romantic tradition established in Rachmaninoff’s Second and Third Piano Concertos, which became musical icons of the 20th century.

The gala continued with the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, an undisputed masterpiece of the composer’s late period. Written in the form of variations and demanding immense concentration and extraordinary virtuosity from the soloist, the work became one of Rachmaninoff’s signatures and a defining masterpiece of the Russian piano tradition as a whole.