Rachmaninov and Rimskij-Korsakov

Timur Zangiev's meteoric career has taken him to the world's leading concert halls. Now he adds the Opera to the list, as he conducts the year's final Kapel concert. The baton belongs this evening to one of the brightest stars in the classical firmament, when the year's final Kapel concert takes place at the Opera. Despite being only 32 years old, Timur Zangiev has already conducted at the Wiener Staatsoper, and he will soon make his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Bayerische Staatsoper and Semperoper Dresden. Just to name a few. Now it is finally Copenhagen's turn, and Operaens Store Scene, where Zangiev leads Kapellet through works by two of his great Russian compatriots; Sergej Rachmaninov and Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov. Zangiev opens with Rachmaninov's The Isle of the Dead, which the composer created in just a couple of months at the start of 1909 after seeing a black-and-white reproduction of Arnold Böcklin's painting of the same name. The work opens with a barcarolle, a rocking melody known from the Venetian gondoliers, and later we dive into one of Rachmaninov's classic hallmarks – the use of the Dies irae theme from the Catholic Mass for the dead – which also appears in the evening's next work. In the piano work Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the music consists of 24 variations that develop organically until the seventh variation, where the melody of the Dies irae is introduced. At the piano for this part of the concert sits the soloist Kyohei Sorita, who has made his mark as one of Japan's most acclaimed pianists. The concert ends with Rimskij-Korsakov's Scheherazade, inspired by the tales of the 1001 Nights. Here we meet Sultan Shahryar, who has killed his previous wives but lets his current one live for as long as she can night after night hold his interest with her thrilling stories. The violin solo in the work symbolises the clever Scheherazade's struggle to survive through the captivating tales.

• Dirigent: Timur Zangiev
• Kyohei Soritaklaver

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