Kristjan Järvi conducts Rachmaninov, Ravel, Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky — With Fazil Say

A pianist-composer described as who “play[ing] like a devil” (Aribert Reimann), Fazil Say performs here two important concertos of his instrument’s repertoire: Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major (one of the last works he ever composed) and Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (originally written for Anton Rubinstein in 1868). Say then performs one of his own compositions, Black Earth, inspired by a popular song in Turkey, Kara Toprak. The program is framed by Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Corelli—performed here in its French premiere in Corneliu Dumbraveanu’s orchestration—and Tchaikovsky’s Snegurochka (“The Snow Maiden”), a work inspired by a Russian folktale.