A2: Bernstein’s Second

ABOUT

In his Symphony The Age of Anxiety, Leonard Bernstein combines the depth of post-war existential questions with a virtuosic piano part, which will be performed in Ostrava by Claire Huangci. Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony then offers a nostalgic return to Russian musical roots, interwoven with emotion and the beauty of a lost homeland.

Program

Leonard Bernstein
Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety”

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44

Performers 

Claire Huangci – piano
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Martyn Brabbins – conductor

Leonard Bernstein was not only a beloved conducting icon but also an exceptionally skilled and inventive composer. His Symphony No. 2, subtitled The Age of Anxiety, is by no means a traditional symphonic work. It combines deep intellectual substance with the concertante virtuosity of the piano part, which will be performed by the renowned American pianist Claire Huangci, already well known to Ostrava audiences. Bernstein found inspiration in the poem of the same name by W. H. Auden, an allegorical meditation on the desperate search for faith in the aftermath of World War II. The story of four lonely individuals grappling with spiritual emptiness and seeking a deeper meaning in their humanity will surely resonate deeply even today.

Much like Bernstein, Sergei Rachmaninoff placed his performing career above composing for much of his life. After emigrating from Russia, he settled in the United States, where during the 1920s and 1930s he earned a reputation as one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his time. Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3, composed in 1936, is a late work filled with nostalgic memories of a lost homeland and a distant past. Through its sweeping romanticism, melancholic sentimentality, and richly colored orchestral textures, the symphony uniquely reflects the rich legacy of Russian music at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.