Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest - Valery Gergiev

This programme by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev can almost be seen as a counterpart to the concert by the Philharmonia Symphony Orchestra of St Petersburg (Thursday 25th November 2004). The opening work is also by Tchaikovsky, but unlike the fairly one-dimensional 'Slavonic March', here we have a many-layered fantasy overture for Shakespeare's drama 'Romeo and Juliet'. Tchaikovsky links the essence of the dramatic story B the divisive conflict between the families of Verona and the love between Romeo and Juliet B to the tension between two themes that is inherent to the sonata form. This programme contains no grand romantic concerto, but it does have Stravinsky's highly-refined, classically-oriented Symphony in three parts. The closing symphony is 24-carat romanticism: Rachmaninov's Second Symphony, a work which demonstrates that music need not by definition be progressive in order to be experienced as worthwhile. After all, in this work, completed in 1907, Rachmaninov displays perfect control not only of the great symphonic machine, but also of an extremely fresh and highly personal romantic attitude which he was able to retain throughout his creative career.