October 2003 - Nr. 10
October 22, 2003
Ever check out the score of Rach 3?
It features some of the blackest pages in all of the piano
repertoire.
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Thomas Dausgaard, conductor
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Boris Berezovsky, piano
November 5 & 6 at 8 PM / November 8 at 7:30 PM Roy Thomson Hall
Toronto, Ontario – Remember the movie "Shine"? There is a scene that featured young David Helfgott in a piano lesson with his teacher, Cyril Smith (played memorably by Sir John Gielgud). Smith rhapsodizes about "glorious, big…fat… chords!…" while Helfgott struggles through the score of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto. It is this work that is one of the very hardest concerti to play, and features some of the blackest pages in the piano repertoire, so densely packed they are with notes. Thomas Dausgaard conducts with Boris Berezovsky at the piano; Ravel’s La Valse (November 5 & 6 only) and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 round out the concerts. This is the second of three concerts with Russian-themed concerts; the last takes place November 12/13/15 with Christian Tetzlaff performing Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 was completed as a major composition which the composer would "show off" in New York in 1909 during his first concert tour of the States. He wrote the work in the peace of his family's country estate, Ivanovka, and it was completed on September 23, 1909. Due to time constraints, Rachmaninoff was unable to practise it on an actual keyboard in Russia and had to do it on a silent keyboard during his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean on board a ship. The concerto was dedicated to Joseph Hofmann, considered by Rachmaninoff to be the greatest pianist of the day. Unfortunately, Hofmann did not play the work in his lifetime. The Third Concerto was premiered on November 28, 1909, with Rachmaninoff himself at the keyboard, joined by the Symphony Society of New York at the New Theatre, New York, under Walter Damrosch. On January 16, 1910, he repeated the Third at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic under Gustav Mahler. It was reported that both great musicians had great respect and admiration for each other.
Boris Berezovsky, winner of the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition, was born in Moscow in 1969 and had his first piano lesson at the age of five. He later studied with Elizabeth Wirzaladze at the Moscow State Conservatoire and privately with Alexander Satz. In 1988 Boris Berezovsky made his London debut in a recital at the Wigmore Hall. The London Times described him as "an artist of exceptional promise." This promise was realized when he won the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1990. Nothing like a huge competition win to get things rolling: London, Paris, Vienna, Rome, Zurich, Munich, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Montreal, Bern, Budapest and Tokyo is just a partial list of the cities this pianist has conquered. He made his United States debut with a recital in Fort Worth Texas, where the Dallas Morning News reported: "This was important playing. What Berezovsky did and how he saw the music was totally unexpected. It is something new or even something being reborn in piano playing." Boris Berezovsky has an exclusive recording contract with Teldec Classics and so far has led to solo discs of Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninoff and Ravel, together with concertos by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Liszt.
The November 6 concert is part of the CBC Radio Two Live! series; the November 6 concert will be presented live on CBC Radio Two 94.1. November 5 sponsored by: Pricewaterhouse Coopers. November 6 sponsored by: Ceridian Canada Ltd.
Tickets: $98, $77, $65, $32.
Call the Roy Thomson Hall box office at 416 593 4828.
Mon-Fri, 9-8. Sat, 12-5. Sun, 2 hrs prior to concert start. VISA/MC/AMEX.
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
#550 – 212 King Street West, Toronto, ON, M5H 1K5
Marketing fax: 416 593 8660 www.tso.ca
