Venue: Concert Hall

Dates: September 19-21, 2018

Programme

September 19th

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

I. Monderato

II. Adagio sostenuto

III. Allegro scherzando

Pianist: Alexei Volodin

——Intermission——

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13

I. Grave

II. Allegro animato

III. Larghetto

IV. Allegro con fuoco

September 21st

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

I. Allegro ma non tanto

II. Intermezzo: Adagio

III. Finale: Alla breve

Pianist: Alexei Volodin

——Intermission——

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13

I. Grave

II. Allegro animato

III. Larghetto

IV. Allegro con fuoco

Conductor

Thomas Søndergård

Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård is Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBCNOW) and Principal Guest Conductor of Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO); prior to this, he was for three seasons Principal Conductor and Musical Advisor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. He has recently been announced as Music Director of Royal Scottish National Orchestra from September 2018.

Plans for 2017/18 include debuts with Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Gurzenich-Orchester Köln, SWR Baden-Baden, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and return visits to London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra (Mahler Symphony No. 1), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Stravinsky’s Firebird), Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the revival of The Magic Flute with Norske Opera. With RSNO he conducts performances of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben and for the RSNO Piano Competition. Plans with BBC NOW include a programme with highly acclaimed pianist Stephen Hough and performances of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 12 and Sibelius Symphony No. 5.

Artist

Alexei Volodin

Acclaimed for his highly sensitive touch and technical brilliance, Alexei Volodin is in demand by orchestras at the highest level. He possesses an extraordinarily diverse repertoire, from Beethoven and Brahms through Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Scriabin to Gershwin, Schedrin and Medtner.

Born in 1977 in Leningrad, Alexei Volodin studied at Moscow’s Gnessin Academy and later with Eliso Virsaladze at the Moscow Conservatoire. In 2001, he continued his studies at the International Piano Academy Lake Como and gained international recognition following his victory at the International Géza Anda Competition in Zurich in 2003.

Presenter

China NCPA Orchestra

China NCPA Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Beijing. Established in March 2010, the orchestra consists of highly accomplished musicians from around the world, who perform in more than a dozen opera productions presented by its home venue each year as well as in ballets and regular orchestral concerts in its own season. With a notably busy schedule, the young ensemble has fast established itself as one of the most adventurous and dynamic orchestras in the country. LÜ Jia took up the post of Chief Conductor in February 2012, succeeding CHEN Zuohuang, the current Conductor Laureate, NCPA’s then Artistic Director of Music as well as a founder of the orchestra. In January 2017, upon CHEN Zuohuang's retirement, LÜ Jia started serving as NCPA's Artistic Director of Music and the NCPA Orchestra's Music Director.

In the first few years since its establishment, China NCPA Orchestra has become one of the leading ensembles in the country both on stage and in the pit, gaining critical acclaim for its performances in NCPA’s many opera productions. To date, they have played for over 30 new productions, including not only classical repertoire such as Tristan and Isolde, Tosca, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Fledermaus, Aida, Otello, Nabucco, but also newly commissioned works including Rickshaw Boy, The Long March, FANG Zhimin, The Jinsha River, and Visitors on the Snow Mountain. In its own orchestral concert season, the orchestra has consistently presented creative and diverse programmes. Their performance of the Ring without Words with its creator, Lorin Maazel, was released on SONY Music worldwide, the only recording the great maestro ever made with a Chinese orchestra.

The NCPA Orchestra has flexed its wings on the international stage, receiving widespread international praise for its performances at the Kissingen Summer Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and concerts in many cities in Germany, as well as in Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Daegu, Abu Dhabi, Taipei and Macao. The orchestra undertook its first North American tour in 2014 and the revisiting tour in 2017, where it performed at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Davies Symphony Hall and other major venues in the US and Canada, under the baton of LÜ Jia. Musical America praised its “joyful confidence and youthful strength”. Concerto Net described it as “a polished, first rate ensemble”.