Columbus Symphony Russian Winter Festival displays Tchaikovsky music
When you think of the nation of Russia, you probably think of frigid winter weather, the fat tomes of Dostoevsky or Tolstoy and probably a czar or two.
You might also recall music of unusual power and majesty.
“There is something about the way that Russian composers are able to channel not only their own emotion … but through many methods, they channel the emotion of the whole people,” said pianist Inon Barnatan, who will join the Columbus Symphony as part of a two-part Russian Winter Festival in the Ohio Theatre.
The annual symphony presentation will return this month with two separate programs, each with different music by Russian composers. The first program will be performed on Jan. 7-8; the second, featuring Barnatan, on Jan. 21-23.
You don’t need to pack your parka to go; a ticket — and an ear for grand, emotional music — will suffice.
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“It’s a nice transition to going back to our regular programming, after being pretty much on a diet of holiday and Christmas music for the entire month of December,” Music Director Rossen Milanov said. “By the time January arrives, everybody is ready to do something bigger and impressive.”
Each program will feature different music by the heavyweights of the Russian repertoire: Modest Mussorgsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
While the composers might be said to have little in common other than being born in the same country, Milanov said that Russian music shares certain traits.
“They are all similar to a certain extent, because at the root of all these compositions, of course, is their folklore tradition — their songs, their dances,” Milanov said.
Milanov, a native of the Eastern European nation of Bulgaria, placed an emphasis on performing works by Russian composers upon taking over the symphony in 2015.
“Before I came (to the symphony), the emphasis was a lot on French music,” said Milanov, who has programmed Russian Winter Festivals annually since his arrival in Columbus. “I realized that there is a lot of wonderful Russian music that hasn’t been performed frequently, and my goal was to bring both familiar works that the audience recognizes very well and also to introduce our Columbus public to works that are more rarely performed.”
The upcoming shows have a bit of both.
The Jan. 7-8 program is heavy on the warhorses of the repertoire. First up will be Mussorgsky’s beloved 1874 work “Pictures at an Exhibition,” which draws its power not only from its expressive musical evocation of assorted pictures in a gallery, but also from its deep, personal significance for the composer.
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“The purpose for this piece was to commemorate the death of one of Mussorgsky’s close friends (in 1873), who happened to be an artist and an architect,” said Milanov, referring to artist Viktor Hartmann, whose pictures fueled Mussorgsky’s composition. “This piece actually served as a requiem.”
Also on the bill Jan. 7-8 is Stravinsky’s 1913 masterpiece “The Rite of Spring,” which, nearly 40 years after “Pictures at an Exhibition,” caused intensely divided audience response at the time of its premiere; the work, intended to accompany a ballet, invited controversy by wedding Russian folk music with an experimental style.
“This is a work which literally could be compared with a revolution in the world of music because nothing like this really existed before,” Milanov said.
For the Jan. 21-23 program, the symphony will perform Tchaikovsky’s “Orchestral Suite No. 3,” a work from 1884 that is less likely to be familiar to local audiences because of how infrequently it is performed.
Even so, Milanov praises “the height that Tchaikovsky reaches in terms of the skill of orchestration, the interesting colors, the combinations, the bringing out (of) the virtuosity of every single instrument.”
Then Barnatan will join the symphony for Rachmaninoff’s famously demanding “Piano Concerto No. 3.” The work, which was first performed in 1909, contains so many elements that the pianist relishes the chance to practice it at his own pace.
“There’s nothing like practicing Rachmaninoff slowly,” said Barnatan, 42, a native of Israel who resides in New York City. “The sheer amount of detail and just juicy interest that sometimes, when you’re playing it at full speed, just goes by, and when you’re practicing slowly, it’s so satisfying both pianistically and musically to work on.”
Of course, it’s up to Barnatan to make all of those details come through when he plays the piece at full speed later this month.
“It’s the challenge and the fun of it,” he said. “Luckily, Rachmaninoff really knows how to write for piano.”
At a glance
The Columbus Symphony will perform Russian Winter Festival I at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 7-8, with a dress rehearsal performance at 10 a.m. Jan. 7; and Russian Winter Festival II, featuring pianist Inon Barnatan, at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 21-22 and 2 p.m. Jan. 23. All performances will take place in the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St. Masks and proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test required. Patrons are encouraged to use the Bindle check-in app. Tickets cost $10.33 to $81.73, or $14 for the Jan. 7 dress rehearsal. For more information, visit www.columbussymphony.com.
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