Peter I. Tchaikovsky 1840–1893
Capriccio italien op. 45
Sergei Rachmaninov 1873–1943
Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in C minor op. 18
Ottorino Respighi 1879–1936
Fontane di Roma
Pini di Roma
Gabriela Montero, piano
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
pre-concert talk by Andreas Bomba at 18.30hrs in the main auditorium
Goethe, like Tchaikovsky, yearned for Italy, »where the lemon trees grow«. He was so moved, while staying in Rome to forget problems in Russia, by a lively Roman carnival that he was inspired to compose his Capriccio italien.
Sergei Rachmaninov undertook two long trips to the Crimea and Italy in early 1900. Although bored at first, he later admitted the change of scenery had done him good: “ I began composing again in early summer and was flooded by musical ideas.” Ideas for his 2nd piano concerto. The premiere a year later, which he played himself, marked his definitive artistic breakthrough as a pianist and composer.
Rome became home for Ottorino Respighi, who was born in Bologna, when he was appointed professor of composition at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in 1913. He dedicated three monumental symphonic poems to his new hometown, two of which: The Fountains of Rome and The Pines of Rome round off these concerts. The programme neatly tracing a path from a Roman Carnival to the heart of the “Eternal City.”
