Behzod Abduraimov will play Rachmaninoff with the Czech Philharmonic
The Uzbek pianist will play with the orchestra exactly eight years after their first joint performance in 2014. Rhapsody on Paganini’s theme by Sergei Rachmaninoff will be performed together with Symphony No. 11 called “Year 1905” by Dmitri Shostakovich under the baton of Semyon Bychkov.
Behzod Abdurainov, born in 1990 in Tashkent, performs all over the world and is appreciated for his musicality, which he combines with deep sensitivity and technical prowess. WITH Czech Philharmonic for the first time already in 2014, when it started its 119th season under the baton of the then chief conductor and music director Jiří Bělohlávek Piano Concerto No. 3 Sergei Prokofiev. He then returned in 2016, when he performed the famous Tchaikovsky in July’s 120th season Piano Concerto No. 1 under the baton Jakub Hrůšand 2017, when he played Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3again under the guise of Jiří Bělohlávek.
For his appearances on three concerts from 10.5 to 10.7. in Dvořák’s Rudolfinum Hallalways from 7:30 p.mthis time he chose Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini from 1934. The composition for piano and orchestra contains 24 variations on the famous Capriccio No. 24 from Niccolò Paganini’s pen, which, in addition to Rachmaninov, inspired a number of other composers, e.g. Brahms.
“After his departure from Russia, Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote only six compositions. In order to provide for his family, he had to do far more concerts instead of composing. Moreover, his Fourth Piano Concerto, the first opus written in exile, did not achieve the expected success. Happiness met him only after he settled with his family on the shores of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, where he created a Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini in one breath.” says Behzod Abduraimov about the song he recorded in 2020 with Lucerne Symphony Orchestra for publishing Sony Classic.
The second composition of the October concerts is Eleventh Symphony Dmitri Shostakovich, which was inspired by the first Russian revolution of 1905, especially the so-called “Bloody Sunday”, which stood at its beginning. Its premiere took place on October 30, 1957 in Moscow, and the composition provoked completely contradictory reactions. Party officials included it among the exemplary works of socialist realism, but some Western critics considered it official libel and artistically more like film music. Today, the symphony is perceived in the spirit that Shostakovich himself indicated: as a manifestation of the strangely turning wheel of fate. The Czech premiere of the work took place on Prague Spring already on May 21, 1958 under the baton Karel Šejnyin the same year he drove it twice more Ladislav Slovak – then he performed it again in the Rudolfinum Eliahu Inbal in 2010, after more than fifty years.
Source: press release
Photo: Nissor Abdourazakov