Masters, a concert to start Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä’s autumn season 2009

Patrick Gallois (conductor) and Juhani Lagerspetz (piano) will perform, with Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, the music of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff in the first concert of the autumn season 2009, entitled Masters. The concert will be held on 2nd of September at the Jyväskylä City Theatre, starting at 7pm.

The orchestra will start its season with two masterpieces from the Romantic era: Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no.5 and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Concerto for piano and orchestra no. 2.

In general, Tchaikovsky’s symphonies are characterized by inventive and rich melodic structures, colourful orchestration, occasional strong counterpoint and the presence of deeply strong emotions. The 5th symphony’s first performance received a lot of criticism from contemporary critics and even from Tchaikovsky himself, but despite all of this, over the years the symphony has become one of the most performed works of the composer.

Rachmaninoff’s concerto, filled with technical and musical virtuosity, was the first composition he made after suffering from depression, and the concerto was dedicated to his physician Nikolai Dahl who helped Rachaminoff in restoring the composer’s self-confidence. The concerto was composed in the first years of the 20th century and the music follows the style of the Late Romantic era.

Pianist Juhani Lagerspetz is a personal interpreter whose impressive musical career contains performances with various orchestras and musical groups, several recording sessions, and currently he works as a professor at the Sibelius Academy.

25.8.2009 Mari Itäranta