When Music Achieves Cult Status
Let’s talk about music. Cult music. At first glance, SoNA’s Masterworks II concert, coming up on Saturday, January 21 at 7:30 PM at the Walton Arts Center, might look a bit…foreign. After all, we’re talking about two Russian composers: Rachmaninov and Shostakovich. Both are 20th Century composers, and the pieces we’re playing for you were written in the first half of that century.
Let’s start with Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, otherwise known as “Rach 3” (and pronounced “Rock 3”, I might add…). This is one of the most famous pieces of all time. It is gorgeous, thrilling, and has a certain cult status. If you took the most famous pianists of our time – people like Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, and Lang Lang – and asked them which piece audiences would love to hear them play the most, you might be surprised at the answer: Rach 3. This, after all, is the piece of music that was featured as the “Everest” of concertos in Shine, the movie about the tortured musician David Helfgott, played by Geoffrey Rush. For the piano soloist, this is astonishingly difficult music to play – only the most prodigiously talented artists can even approach it, let alone play it with insight and depth. (It’s no walk in the park for the orchestra, too, I can assure you!) We are so fortunate to have piano superstar Sergei Babayan with us on the 21st playing Rach 3. He's played this particular concerto with some of the best orchestras and conductors around the world - there's no question but that this will be an astonishing performance. If you have never heard this piece live, you’ve got to trust me on this one. Audiences around the globe will back me up when I say you can’t afford to miss it. [By the way, the world premiere took place in New York City in 1910, and it was written specifically for an American audience.]
Next up is Shostakovich’s searing and emotionally-charged Symphony No. 5: the greatest symphony by the greatest symphonist of the 20th Century. This piece has everything in it, from love to despair, from life to death. It speaks to me powerfully, in a way that no other piece does. It was written by Shostakovich under intense political pressure from Joseph Stalin, whose regime had blacklisted Shostakovich shortly before for writing “Muddle Instead of Music”, referring to his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District. As you can imagine, getting blacklisted by Stalin meant serious danger, and Shostakovich was under enormous pressure to get back in his good graces. It was with the Fifth Symphony that he made the ultimately successful attempt to “rehabilitate” himself.
Over the years, opposing camps have read different meanings into this music, but one thing is clear: this symphony is anything but friendly to Stalin’s government. It is a spark of humanity bursting out of stifling repression, and this spark caught the world on fire. It too, like “Rach 3”, achieved a cult status, with conductors like Leonard Bernstein championing it around the world. Audiences immediately recognized how important this music was – for many, it crystallized the main political conflict of the modern world: democracy versus tyranny. For me, this music argues more forcefully than words ever could for the things we all hold dear, all encapsulated in the word freedom.
These are the pieces SoNA will be playing for you on January 21. These are pieces that have shaped my life and the lives of countless others. These are real, living examples of music that heals the soul and reminds us of what it means to be human. Please join us in a remarkable voyage of discovery and celebration of all that we hold dear.
Oh, and there might just be a surprise on the program. I could tell you about it, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise!
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 01:32PM