The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Music Director Gustavo Dudamel celebrate Rachmaninoff in a cycle of concerts spotlighting the composer’s four concertos for piano and orchestra. The ferociously talented Yuja Wang plays the Fourth Concerto in a program that also features Rachmaninoff’s personal favorite among his works, the choral symphony The Bells (Kolokola)— a setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name in a Russian translation by Konstantin Balmont.
For her preconcert lecture, Dr. Brown-Montesano will explore these two relatively under-appreciated works, beginning with a deep dive into the poetic, stylistic, and personal influences at play in the The Bells. She will also illuminate the musical riches of the Fourth Concerto, which the composer himself viewed as a kind of double concerto, spotlighting the orchestra nearly as much as the piano.