Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season March-April 2016 | Page 26

{ program notes After making his London debut with the Royal Philharmonic in 1977, Mr. Temirkanov was appointed its principal guest conductor and from 1992 to 1998 was principal conductor. He was also the principal guest conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. He frequently conducts the major orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as leading European orchestras, including the Berlin and London philharmonics, London Symphony and the UK-based Philharmonia Orchestra. Mr. Temirkanov’s numerous recordings include collaborations with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Danish National Radio Symphony orchestras, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he recorded the complete Stravinsky ballets and Tchaikovsky symphonies. Yuri Temirkanov last appeared with the BSO in October 2006, conducting Shostakovich’s Tahiti Trot and Tenth Symphony. Denis Matsuev Denis Matsuev has enjoyed a stellar career since his victory in the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1998. He has appeared with the major orchestras of New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, London, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow and St. Petersburg, and with such distinguished conductors as Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Kurt Masur, Mariss Jansons, Zubin Mehta, and Yuri Temirkanov. For many years Mr. Matsuev has collaborated with the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation. He was chosen by the Foundation to perform and record Rachmaninoff’s unknown pieces on the composer’s own piano at the Rachmaninoff house in Lucerne. He introduced two lost Rachmaninoff works, the D Minor Fugue and the piano version of the Suite for Orchestra; both appeared on Mr. Matsuev’s 24 O v ertur e | www. bsomusic .org 2008 RCA recording Unknown Rachmaninoff. He was appointed artistic director of the Foundation in 2008. Mr. Matsuev, a laureate of the prestigious “Shostakovich’s Prize” in music, is a “People’s Artist of Russia” and a member of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art. In February 2014, Mr. Matsuev was awarded the honor of performing at the Closing Ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Mr Matsuev was born in Irkutsk, Russia in 1975. His father was a composer and pianist and his mother was a piano teacher. Denis Matsuev last appeared with the BSO in April 2004, performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with Roberto Abbado, conductor. About the concert: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, opus 30 Sergei Rachmaninoff Born in Oneg, Russia, April 1, 1873; died in Beverly Hills, California, March 28, 1943 In 1909, Sergei Rachmaninoff signed a contract to undertake his first American tour. Eight years before the Russian Revolution, he could not have guessed he would one day be a U.S. resident, but he did know he wanted to make a strong impression in the lucrative American market. He decided that a new concerto was required. He composed his Third Piano Concerto in D Minor the summer before the tour at his country estate, Ivanovka. He practiced the new concerto on a dummy keyboard on the boat to America. Although the Third Concerto scored a success at its premiere on November 28, 1909 with the New York Symphony (now the N ]