Lahti Symphony Orchestra: Colossus among concertos

HANNU LINTU, conductor
ALEXANDER MELNIKOV, piano

Sauli Zinovjev: Wiegenlied *
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Symphony No. 1
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1, ‘Classical

* composer-in-residence, Lahti Symphony Orchestra

Alexander Melnikov, a Russian music specialist who has twice won a Gramophone Award, tackles perhaps the most acerbic work in the concerto repertoire. Sergei Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto is known as a massive challenge, with devilish runs and horrific visions that push even the most hardened virtuosos to the limits of their abilities.

Einojuhani Rautavaara and Sergei Prokofiev both began their symphonic cycles with works in a style to which they would never return. Rautavaara’s First echoes the early stages of Finnish modernism, while Prokofiev, frightened by the Russian Revolution, sought refuge in the past, in the light-hearted classicism of the 18th century.

Sauli Zinovjev’s Wiegenlied has been spreading peace and serenity in concert halls around the world for some years now. This poem of tranquillity, which takes its cue from Brahms’ famous lullaby, is finally being played in Lahti.