Rare pianist, a real enlightener, would perform piano concerts by Medtner. And it’s not about sheer technical challenge of the pieces, the problem is that piano and orchestra should… trade places! They kind of exchange their respective sounds. The composer’s writing for piano discovered new sonic possibilities of the instrument, showcasing its best at the same time.

Medtner did confess, that the process of instrumentation was torturous for him. Three piano concerts written by him are three different spheres of images, differently sculptured music forms. Another cause of non-popularity of the genius composer, and this deplorable situation should be fixed, no doubt.

Image spheres of rhythmically active element of dance, on the one hand, and cantilena lyrics on the other, dominate the 2^nd Concert – unlike the 1^st. “Tocatta”, “Romance”, and “Devirtisment” are composer’s subtitles. Three apparently different Concerts of Medtner have characteristic features, though. The main is: piano dominates. Orchestra part was thought by him as a backdrop for piano’s part, not as a competing part (just remember that “concerto” actually means competition of solo instrument and orchestra).

Despite an overwhelming love to his Motherland, Rachmaninov couldn’t accept October revolution, and left the country in 1918. After the emigration, he had no time to compose music for as long as nearly ten years! It’s only during 1926 did the composer come back to the 4^th Piano concert that he had begun writing while still in Russia. 18 May 1927 saw the premiere of the piece, with author playing and Leopold Stokowky conducting, to cool reception. The audience remembered the 2^nd and the 3^rd Concerts, and felt somewhat cheated. Rachmaninov did re-write the piece, but still the 4^th is performed far rarely than its predecessors. It’s not fair, for the pleasure from listening of this beautiful, characteristically Rachmaninov-esque music, will be enormous.

State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra) is one of the oldest symphony ensembles in the country: in 2021 it celebrates its 85th anniversary. The first performance of the orchestra conducted by Alexander Gauk and Erich Kleiber, took place on October 5th, 1936 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Over the years, the State  In 2021 Vasily Petrenko was appointed as the Artistic Director of the orchestra. The orchestra’s concerts were held at the most famous concert venues in the world. 

Boris Berezovsky has established a remarkable reputation, both as the most powerful of virtuoso pianists and as a musician of unique insight and sensitivity. Born in Moscow in 1969, Boris Berezovsky studied at the Moscow Conservatoire with Eliso Virsaladze and privately with Alexander Satz. Following his London début at the Wigmore Hall in 1988, The Times described him as "an artist of exceptional promise, a player of dazzling virtuosity and formidable power"; two years later that promise was fulfilled when he won the Gold Medal at the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Boris Berezovsky works regularly as concerto soloist with orchestras including the Concertgebouw, Philharmonia Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Hamburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper, Hessischer Rundfunk, Russian National Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and with conductors such as Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Vladimir  Ashkenazy, Alezander Lazarev, Andrew Litton, Mikhail Pletnev, Antonio Pappano etc.