Rachmaninoff – Denis Matsuev, Riccardo Chailly, Lucerne Festival Orchestra

The programme with which Riccardo Chailly and his Lucerne Festival Orchestra opened the 2019 Lucerne Festival orbits around a turning point in Rachmaninoff’s life, pairing the legendary Third Piano Concerto, written in Russia in 1909, with the melancholic Third Symphony, which he created as an émigré in Hertenstein near Lucerne in 1935-36. In both works, Rachmaninoff inspires listeners with his gift for melody, but, as Riccardo Chailly also remarks: “In fact his real hallmark is his harmonic thinking. You only need to hear three chords and at once you can recognize his creative genius.”