Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 under the direction of Australian conductor Nicholas Carter, the Principal Conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Russian composer, Sergei Rachmaninov (1872-1943) made a somewhat dramatic departure from the revolutionary chaos of his homeland in 1917, when he made his way across the border to Finland on an open sled with his wife and daughters. He would remain an exile for the rest of his life. Yet well before this life-altering event, a note of deep underlying melancholy can be heard in the Second Symphony, which premiered in St Petersburg in 1908, winning a decidedly popular and critical triumph. Yet it was some 70 years before the work came in from the cold and the hour-long romantic epic is now one of his most popular works - the concertgoers to the Thursday morning concert agreed wholeheartedly with rapturous applause for conductor and orchestra for their almost overwhelming performance. Afterwards we enjoyed lunch in the sunshine on The Deck at the International Hotel by the Water.
Comments