Krzysztof Urbański conducts Connesson, Rachmaninov, and Weinberg — With Boris Giltburg

Polish maestro Krzysztof Urbański leads the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in a program of supreme Slavic spirit, including Rachmaninov's beloved Piano Concerto No. 2 performed by Boris Giltburg! The program opens with the Polish premiere of Maslenitsa by contemporary French composer Guillaume Connesson, a "picture combining exuberant joy and suffering" named for the Eastern Slavic holiday that, like Mardi Gras, marks the approach of Lent and a farewell to winter. Giltburg then takes on the "Rach 2," a crown jewel of the piano repertoire that boasts some of Rachmaninov's most romantic melodies and dazzlingly virtuosic passages. Finally, Urbański and the Warsaw Phil perform the Third Symphony by Warsaw-born composer Mieczysław Weinberg, which recalls Shostakovich in its stylistic gestures as well as its initial censure by the Soviet cultural apparatus, which kept it hidden and under revision for over a decade before its 1960 premiere.

Photo © Julia Wesely