Rachmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov

For the season’s final concert at The Opera House, the baton is placed in the hands of one of classical music’s brightest young stars. At just 32, Timur Zangiev has already conducted at the Wiener Staatsoper and is set to make his debuts at the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper and Semperoper Dresden – to name but a few. Now he arrives in Copenhagen to lead the Royal Danish Orchestra on the main stage in works by two of his distinguished Russian compatriots: Sergei Rachmaninov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Zangiev opens with Rachmaninov’s The Isle of the Dead, composed in early 1909 after the composer encountered a black-and-white reproduction of Arnold Böcklin’s painting of the same name. The work begins with a sombre barcarolle – a gently rocking melody reminiscent of Venetian gondoliers – before introducing one of Rachmaninov’s signature devices: the Dies irae theme from the Catholic Requiem Mass, which also reappears in the evening’s next work.

In the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, a dazzling concerto in variation form, the music unfolds across 24 variations. The transformation intensifies until the seventh variation, where the Dies irae melody emerges once more. At the piano is soloist Kyohei Sorita, widely recognised as one of Japan’s most distinguished pianists.

The concert concludes with Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite Scheherazade, inspired by One Thousand and One Nights. Here we encounter Sultan Shahryar, who has executed his previous wives but spares his current bride on the condition that she captivates him night after night with her stories. The violin solo represents the resourceful Scheherazade herself, whose lyrical voice becomes her means of survival through spellbinding storytelling.