The Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka will perform a concert of Romantic Masterworks on Sunday, May 23 at the Ladies College Hall at 7 p.m. – Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony, excerpts from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No.1, and Rachmaninov's 1st Piano Concerto. The concert will be conducted by Ananda Dabare, who is noted for his insightful and passionate interpretations of the works of the Russian Masters.
'Romantic' in Western music means works composed in the period between about 1830 and 1900 in which emotional and picturesque expression take precedence over form and structure. Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz and Wagner are typical Romantic composers as indeed are Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Rachmaninov.
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| Harsha Abeyaratne |
Ananda Dabare |
Few composers are more popular with audiences than Tchaikovsky. The potent emotional fervour, soaring melodies, rich and colourful orchestration, dramatic sense, and gift of inspired tone painting of Tchaikovsky's music, appeal directly to the heart.
His powerful and dramatic Fourth Symphony of 1877-78 was considered by Tchaikovsky to be his best symphony to that date, and was composed when he had reached the height of his powers. He had just completed his first great opera Eugene Onegin, following on with his great balletic masterpiece Swan Lake.
This performance by SOSL will be the Sri Lanka premiere of Tchaikovsky's great Fourth Symphony.
Edward Grieg is the greatest composer of Norway and its authentic musical voice. Yet his music transcends national boundaries through his gifts of melody and of impressionistic sound painting, and for creating works of great atmosphere, poetry and passion.
He was asked in 1874 by Ibsen to compose incidental music for his dramatic poem Peer Gynt, about an 18th century adventurer around whom many legends grew. When it was first staged two years later it made Grieg a national figure. The enchanting excerpts, Morning and In the Hall of the Mountain King, are two of the most acclaimed movements of Grieg's ever popular Peer Gynt Suites.
Rachmaninov began composing his First Piano Concerto in 1890, performing the opening movement at the Moscow Conservatory three days before his nineteenth birthday. Finding it unsatisfactory as he matured, he drastically revised it in 1917 and proudly premiered the current version in 1919 - saying it still retained its 'youthful freshness' - years after his Second (1901) and Third (1909) concerti. Some of his inspiration came from Grieg whose Piano Concerto he admired, opening with a flourish of descending notes like the Norwegian. The slow movement is quasi-impressionistic and features chromatic writing of exceptional beauty, whilst the finale is launched with a bang, the pianist competing with the orchestra in great leaps of joy.
The soloist in the richly lyrical Concerto will be the well known Sri Lankan pianist resident in the USA, Harsha Abeyaratne. Harsha is pianist and Associate Professor of Music at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio, and has an active career as a soloist, accompanist, chamber musician and teacher.
The Norwegian Embassy is sponsor of the concert. MTV and Yes FM are the electronic media sponsors. |
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