Lugansky plays Rachmaninoff; Rite of Spring

Lugansky plays Rachmaninoff; Rite of Spring

JESSICA CABE Festival Focus Writer

There are few musicians as well suited to bring Rachmaninoff’s music to life as Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky. Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) audiences will be treated to a rousing performance of the composer’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini when Lugansky joins the Aspen Festival Orchestra and conductor James Gaffigan at 4 pm on Sunday, August 4, in the Benedict Music Tent. The program also includes Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Aeriality and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

“Lugansky has become a favorite of our Aspen audience, and it’s just an astounding technique he has and also very, very big emotions,” says AMFS President and CEO Alan Fletcher. “He’s playing the Rachmaninoff Paganini Rhapsody, which has one of the most lyrical moments in the whole concerto repertoire. It also is genuinely funny at times, it’s also sometimes menacing and weird. It’s a unique work.”

The U.K.’s Independent praised Lugansky for his “quintessentially Russian sound with a boldly singing tone and wonderful array of colors,” characteristics of playing that are well suited to this virtuosic and well-loved piece by Rachmaninoff. In fact, this is one of those rare works that has endured the test of time but was also wildly popular at its premiere in 1934. The composer even said, “It somehow looks suspicious that the Rhapsody has had such an immediate success with everybody.”

Pianist Nikolai Lugansky performs Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini on August 4. Lugansky also performs a recital of French works on August 6.

Sunday’s program begins with Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Aereality, which the composer describes as “vast sound-textures combined—and contrasted—with various forms of lyrical material.” The work was called “a highlight of last season’s New York Philharmonic programming” by The New York Times and will serve as a gorgeous opener for this exciting and varied program.

The concert concludes with Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, famously unpopular at its premiere but a work that has grown into an audience favorite for its raw rhythms and piercing harmonies. This iconic, groundbreaking work is not to be missed in the open-air surroundings of the Benedict Music Tent.

At 7:30 pm on Tuesday, August 6, Lugansky will shift gears and treat audiences to a mostly French recital program in Harris Concert Hall, featuring works by Franck, Debussy, and Skryabin.

Lugansky is certainly one of a kind...it is always a tour de force to hear him play the piano in any literature.

-Asadour Santourian AMFS Vice President for Artistic Administration and Artistic Advisor

“From that pinnacle of the big Russian repertoire on Sunday, Lugansky is giving us a very French recital with works by César Franck and Debussy, and then Skryabin, who, while Russian, is a very French side of Russian music.”

Asadour Santourian, AMFS vicepresident for artistic administration and artistic advisor, says the focus of Lugansky’s recital program is color.

“He’s chosen to go to the color world—works that inspire color, infuse color, works of Debussy, the two Arabesques and the Images, and then of course Skryabin, who not only thought in color, but he also notated his music where color could be used—so the space could be filled with color. His program is all about the transmutation of color in music.”

The evening begins with Franck/ Bauer’s Prélude, fugue, et variation, which was composed for the organ. Organists comment that Franck wrote organ music as if for the piano, and pianists point out how “organ-like” his piano music is. Here, Franck plays with the expectations of both instruments, as well as the expectations of form with regard to fugues.

The first half of the program rounds out with Debussy’sDeux arabesques and Images, series 2, works that willhighlight Lugansky’s ability for delicacy and warmth in hisplaying.

Another work by Franck, Prélude, choral, et fugue, beginsthe second half of the program and once more plays withthe meaning of a fugue, as well as a chorale. The programconcludes with Skryabin’s Third Piano Sonata, full of ravishingmelodies throughout its bold emotional and harmonicjourney.

“Lugansky is certainly one of a kind,” Santourian says. “It’shard to describe—he has incredible virtuosity that he putsat the disposal of these programs. And a word about theseprograms: they’re always conceived as a world, so whateveris the theme that he’s curating to support the idea of therecital is always beautifully and carefully thought through.At the end of the day, it is always a tour de force to hearhim play the piano in any literature.”