The paths of tragedy

The Russians, for this occasion—and in this case, three of them—come from Málaga, led by José María Moreno, in an exchange program with two orchestras of similar structure. That is to say, last Thursday, the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, of which Moreno is the principal conductor, was the star of the sixth concert of the season at the Auditorium on the seafront promenade; next April, Pablo Mielgo and the Symphony Orchestra will return the favor by performing the Fifth Symphony and Opening No. 3 of Leonora by Beethoven. As for the concert in question, which filled the stalls and a good part of the amphitheater of the Auditorium, it began with pianist Alexei Volodin performing the Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30Sergei Rahmaninoff's "The Last Circus" is undoubtedly one of the most emblematic pieces of his oeuvre, having become an icon for the most daring virtuosos who attempt to perform it. This piece traveled unperformed on the ship that carried the composer to the United States, the country where he eventually sought refuge years later, fleeing the revolution. A magnificent pianist himself, he premiered the piece in New York, though he performed it with a simpler and shorter cadenza than the one played by Volodin. At the end of the first movement, he played the titanic version, marked in the score as..."I mean", which requires alla collection of attributes available only to the privileged. The pivotal moment of a movement, Allegro mi no tantowhere everything that will follow is foreshadowed. A pinnacle for the pianist and a demonstration of subtle nuances by different instruments—horn, clarinet, flute, and oboe, then acting as soloists. Rahmaninoff, often accused of being antediluvian by the followers of his contemporaries—Bartók, Stravinsky, and company—was challenged by movements like the second, in which all the colors of bygone eras shine. The nemesis of the third movement, filled with a varied series of extremely difficult musical instruments, in sober conjunction with the orchestra, to round out and solidify a whole in which nothing is lacking, and crowned with a resounding piano finale, brought the audience to its feet.

Rachmaninoff was a disciple of Anton Arensky, who was in turn a disciple of Rimsky-Korsakov and of Sergei Taneyev, a student of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the next protagonist of another piece as emblematic as it is renowned, and for many, although it is debatable, the best creation of the composer: Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique", in B minor, Op. 74. A quintessential testamentary piece, exceptionally beginning with a bassoon solo that, in a way, underscores its message, like a journey through Tchaikovsky's life that both allows and compels a whole range of interpretations of the music: from reflection to melancholy, from passion to joy, with a finale that, only under the energetic direction of Moreno and his orchestra, became another of those concerts that leaves no one unmoved. Many well-deserved applauses to give and receive.