Mariinsky Orchestra

Rachmaninoff was widely considered to be as fine a pianist as he was a composer, expanding the expressive possibilities of the instrument in music that require formidable technique. Acclaimed Russian pianist Denis Matsuev joins the Mariinsky Orchestra to tackle one of these works—the rapturous Third Piano Concerto, notorious among performers for its technical and musical demands. Under the baton of Valery Gergiev, the orchestra also performs Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, a glorious fusion of fatalism with rhythmic vivacity and lush melodies tinged with nostalgia for the composer’s native Russia.