Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky’s big guns, Medtner steals the show.

Concert Hall, QPAC, Brisbane
October 25, 2014

In their October Maestro Series concert, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra were joined by Russian conductor Edvard Tchivzhel and Russian pianist Nikolai Demidenko for an aptly named ‘Russian Extravaganza’, featuring works by Rachmaninov, Medtner and Tchaikovsky.

The least familiar of these names, Nikolai Medtner was a prolific composer, particularly for the piano, who never achieved the widespread popularity of his contemporary and close friend Rachmaninov. For this reason, his Piano Concerto No 2 seemed at first glance in danger of being overshadowed by the established, popular favourites that preceded and followed it, namely Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. Ultimately however, Medtner’s musical rarity, performed brilliantly by Demidenko, ended up being the highlight of an evening of Russian masterpieces, a category into which Medtner’s concerto fitted very comfortably.

Written in the mid-1930s, Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 3 in A Minor was one of his last works. The initial reception of the Third Symphony was somewhat shaky, due in part to the fact that it was written directly after his extremely publicly and critically successful Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini, but also possibly due to the...