| From Russia with Love Pairing works by these two composers on a program seems right to us -- but why? Of course they were both Russians who wrote in a Romantic style; and we can sense the influence of Tchaikovsky's harmonic style on Rachmaninoff, who firmly rejected all of the elements of modern compositional style. But these are also composers for whom personal expression was paramount, even if it meant failure to follow the "rules" of composition. When Tchaikovsky began work on his first symphony, he struggled desperately to fit his materials into complex structures like sonata form. Fortunately, he allowed his love of melody, folk elements, and tone painting to predominate -- the last giving rise to descriptive subtitles for the first two movements. Rachmaninoff's rejection of "the rules" came more from a desire to express strong personal feeling as openly as he wanted to, even if that ran the risk of his music being considered too sentimental, particularly his second piano concerto. The greatness of his third concerto derives most from the balancing of his desire for emotional expre Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 7:30 PM Rashi Auditorium 15 Walnut Park Newton, MA 02458 Phone: (617) 965-2555 Website: newtonsymphony.org E-Mail: office@newtonsymphony.org Map & Directions |
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