Rachmaninoff / Bartok

Nikolai Lugansky and Serge Rachmaninoff are an internationally acclaimed pairing. Each fresh performance by the Russian pianist of a work by his compatriot is an event, and this time he will take on his most difficult score, the Piano Concerto No. 3, which Rachmaninoff himself, one of the greatest pianists in history, wrote in 1909 with the aim of showcasing his virtuosity as a performer. This milestone in piano playing will be preceded by the spellbinding impressionism of the symphonic poem The Enchanted Lake by Anatoli Liadov, a master of the generation before Rachmaninoff. In the second part, Juraj Valcuha, principal conductor of the Houston Symphony, will present his rendition of another concert work, although with multiple soloists on this occasion. In his Concerto for Orchestra, composed shortly after he emigrated to the United States to escape the war in Europe, Bartók reached one of the heights of the 20th century in this exploration of the sonic potential of an orchestra.