In Paris, Rachmaninov the poet and the lover

By Mark Pullinger, 28 April 2019

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“as light as honey, without reducing the music to syrup”

Reviewed at Philharmonie de Paris: Grande salle Pierre Boulez, Paris on 28 April 2019

Rachmaninov, Piano Concerto no. 1 in F sharp minor, Op.1

Rachmaninov, Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor, Op.18

Tchaikovsky, Kolibel'naya pesnya (Cradle Song), Op.16 no.1 (arr. Rachmaninov)

Rachmaninov, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor for piano and orchestra, Op.43

Rachmaninov, Prelude in C sharp minor for piano, Op.3 no.2

Nikolai Lugansky, Piano

Behzod Abduraimov, Piano

Orchestre de Paris

Stanislav Kochanovsky, Conductor

Orchestre de Paris and Mäkelä wow Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw

Max Lima, 18th March

Under its Music Director Klaus Mäkelä, the French orchestra returns to the Concertgebouw for an exhilarating concert with pianist Anna Vinnitskaya.

****1

New season, new horizons: Salonen opens the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 3rd September

Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris opened the Elbphilharmonie season with a vivid journey from Strauss’s dramatic energy, through a reflective new Horn Concerto, to Sibelius’s luminous, precise grandeur.

****1

Rach 4 redefined: Mäkelä and Yunchan Lim set a new benchmark in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 11th June

In Yunchan Lim’s hands the score to Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto emerges as a small revelation, conspicuously succeeding where so many others have floundered.

*****

Klaus Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris paint vivid pictures in Vienna

Mark Pullinger, 23rd February

Maurice Ravel the orchestrator takes centre stage at the Musikverein in an evening of descriptive aural painting.

****1

Khatia Buniatishvili in search of her lost fingers

Alain Lompech, 30th October

Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto turns out to be a shipwreck for the Georgian pianist, despite an admirable Orchestre de Paris and conductor (Kirill Karabits).

*1111

Fresh and flamboyant: Mäkelä and the Orchestre de Paris at the Proms

Mark Thomas, 3rd September

Klaus Mäkelä presents fresh and dynamic takes on French masterpieces from Debussy and Berlioz, the Orchestre de Paris providing colour and vigour in Stravinsky.

*****

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

In Paris, Lugansky and Abduraimov reveal Rachmaninov the poet and the lover