REAL RUSSIAN at THE NORWEGIAN OPERA & BALLET

9 June 2012 19.00
Free introduction on the 1st balcony at 18.30

Pure Russian. This will be an evening for great emotions. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, which starts with a simple and heartfelt theme that is embellished into the virtuoso, will doubtless be remembered by many from the film Shine (1996) about the pianist David Helfgott, and is considered to be one of the most technically demanding piano concertos ever written. Rachmaninoff wrote the concerto in 1909 and, as the considerable concert pianist he was, he premiered it himself the same year in New York. This time it is the acclaimed American pianist Garrick Ohlsson who performs it.


We also hear Peter Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, one of the 20th century’s most frequently performed symphonies. The use of melody and harmonisation reflects Russian romanticism and in expression the symphony is both energetic and full of emotion. Tchaikovsky himself said that it reflects life as an unbroken chain of exchange between hard realities, dreams that pass and visions of happiness.

Musical direction: John Helmer Fiore

Piano: Garrick Ohlsson

Programme
Mikhail I. Glinka Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila
Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor
Peter Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor

The Opera Orchestra