site.btaSofia Philharmonic Presents Concert Devoted to Rachmaninoff’s Musical Genius

The Sofia Philharmonic will present Rachmaninoff, the Genius’ Other Face, a concert devoted to the musical genius of one of the greatest composers, pianists and conductors of the 20th century - Sergei Rachmaninoff. The event will be held on May 15 at the Bulgaria Hall, the organizers announced Monday.

The musicians will perform together with pianist Violetta Egorova, who has been acknowledged as one of the most prominent interpreters of Rachmaninoff, and maestro Epifanio Comis. They will play Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 4 and Symphony No. 3. The pieces, often in the shadow of some of his more popular works, possess the magic of the unusual world of Rachmaninoff, the Philharmonic added.

The organizers also said: The Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 4 was one of the composer’s last works and surprised the audience at its premiere in 1926, it was not welcomed with acclaim, but with confusion. “Too modern, too cold,” the critics wrote. Symphony No. 3, created in the period of his exile to the US, was a personal work, in which nostalgia for his homeland and his innovative musical language intertwined. Composed in Switzerland the symphony did not receive enthusiastic acclaims at its premiere in 1936. Many of his critics found it “outdated” and “melancholic”. Rachmaninoff was disappointed. But despite this in the following years the symphony started winning acclaim, especially thanks to conductors like Yevgeny Mravinsky and Vladimir Ashkenazy, who found great emotional depth in it.