Video streamed event and on demand: Concerto for the left hand

Pianist Denis Kozhukhin combines technical skill, a mature musicality, and the ability to reach the audience through music. This is also why he is in unbelievably high demand as a concert pianist. In recent seasons, he has performed with leading orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Oslo Philharmonic. He performed with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017, when he played Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto.

Now he presents Ravel’s celebrated concerto for left hand, composed for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I. Wittgenstein developed a phenomenal technique with his left hand and commissioned works by numerous composers, including Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Before the Ravel concerto, we will hear a piece by Estonian Ester Mägi, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 99. She would have turned 100 years old in January 2022. Over time, her music has garnered increasing international attention. Vesper for String Orchestra was composed in 1990 (revised in 1998) and is a tender-hearted and melodic piece of music. As is often the case in her work, one detects the inspiration of folk music.

French conductor Lionel Bringuier made his debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at this concert. He presently serves as Artiste Associé in his home town Nice with Opéra de Nice. Bringuier conducts the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3. The third symphony begins with a melodic signature that recurs in various forms through each movement. The music bears many of Rachmaninoff’s musical traits, such as heartfelt melodies, powerful intensification and romantic passion.