Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Rachmaninoff & Bartok - 01/24/26

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 

Bela Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, Sz.116, BB 123 

Conductor: Juraj Valcuha 

Piano: Behzod Abduraimov 

Exactly two weeks and one fleeting cold after going to the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone with my visiting friend Vittorio for Tchaikovsky’s fabulous Piano Concerto No. 1, I was back, alone this time, for Rachmaninoff’s equally fabulous Piano Concerto No. 3 last Saturday evening. Unsurprisingly, the Sala Santa Cecilia was just as packed and buzzing with excitement as the previous time. Another irrefutable proof that if you program beloved warhorses, they will come. 

Last Saturday night’s record attendance was all the more remarkable as Slovak conductor Juraj Valčuha and Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov, while well-known and respected in their fields, are not quite established household names yet. On the other hand, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia has a pristine reputation and a simple mention of the monumental Rach 3 rarely fails to set aflutter the hearts of classical music aficionados, and others too (No offense to Bartok, whose work I was looking forward to discovering as well). So nobody had to twist any concert-goer's arms to show up, even on a cold and wet Saturday evening.

When it comes to their opening notes, Tchaikovsky’s and Rachmaninoff’s works could not be more different: The former is blatantly attention-grabbing while the second is deceptively subdued, almost apprehensive of where it is going. That said, on Saturday night, Abduraimov knew exactly how to proceed, and he took us there with impressive dexterity and confidence. Not only did he readily overcome the score’s countless daunting technical challenges, but he also brilliantly conveyed its lyrical beauty, emotional depth, and pervasive sense of mystery. 

At about 40 minutes, the composition is not overly long, but it is relentlessly demanding. Bringing it to life therefore requires constant concentration and unwavering stamina, both of which Abduraimov obviously has in spades. He almost made his commanding performance look effortless, and he certainly made it sound thrilling for all of us, as the stunned silence filling the concert hall during its entire duration could attest. 

After wrapping up such a flawless tour de force, he would have been forgiven for just basking in the thunderous applause and call it a night. But no, he had more in store for us, and he eventually sat back down at the piano to treat us to an equally virtuosic take on Franz Liszt’s delightful Campanella, the third of his six Grandes études de Paganini, S. 141. 

After intermission, everybody was back in their seats for Bela Bartok’s unquestionably pleasant yet rather conventional by his standards Concerto for Orchestra, but our hearts may not have been into it as much as the perfectly respectable work and admittedly wonderful performance deserved. For a lot of us, our evening had already been made with the mind-blowing experience that had been Rach 3, and there was quite a bit of comment exchanging, body shifting and phone checking in the audience during the second part of the program. But then again, the power of music eventually prevailed, and we all gratefully took it in.

Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Weber, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak - 01/10/26

Carl Maria von Weber: Overture to Oberon 

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23 

Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B. 163 

Conductor: Manfred Honeck 

Piano: Seong-Jin Cho 

After having to begrudgingly contend with a very late arrival at Termini (You gotta to admit that a one-hour-and-a-half delay is a bit much even by Italian railroad standards, no?), very high demand and very little supply at the taxi stand, and a relentless downpour that even the cheerful holiday lights inside and outside the station could not make up for, I can definitely say that my return to Rome earlier this month was less glorious than I had hoped for. On the plus side, things could only get better. 

It took a while though, as The Eternal City was apparently targeted by a week-long biblical flood that only receded to give way to a Siberian cold spell for a couple of days, but hey, when things finally got back to kind of normal, the holidays were finally over, the year-long Jubilee was finally over, and the countless hordes of tourists and faithful were slowly but surely thinning out. And I had settled back in by then. 

Even better, since my Neapolitan friend Vittorio was going to be in town for the talk about music and spirituality by the eminent journalist, writer and TV host, as well as former European parliament member, Corrado Augias and conductor, composer and pianist Aurelio Canonici at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone last Sunday morning, not to mention a daytrip to Florence for the stunning exhibition about Fra Angelico on Monday, we figured that it would be the perfect opportunity to go hear some live music as well. 

And that’s what we decided to do on Saturday evening, at the very same Parco della Musica at the totally civilized time of 6:00 PM, when the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia would present, among other things, one of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s biggest hits with his Piano Concerto No. 1, which would be interpreted by rising star Seong-Jin Cho under the baton of highly regarded Austrian maestro Manfred Honeck. I was finally feeling I was getting my Roman groove back. 

As if to make up for the trying times I had had so far, the first live musical notes I got to hear this year belonged to the thoroughly delightful overture to Carl Maria von Weber’s Oberon, which happens to be widely considered the best thing about the opera. Although I still do not know the entire score, I very much enjoyed the piece's voluptuous Romanticism, enchanting melodies and intense drama. 

Of course, when it comes to Romanticism, melodies and drama, it is hard to beat Tchaikovsky’s forever thrilling Piano Concerto No. 1, which after a debut viciously panned by the experts and eagerly embraced by pretty much everybody else, has seldom been heard by anybody it was not able to immediately sweep off their feet with its commanding opening, impossibly beautiful sounds and irresistible emotional appeal. 

And sure enough, the magic operated flawlessly on Saturday night again as the endearingly understated Cho used his impressive technique and delicate sensitivity to skillfully calibrate virtuosity and elegance. The applause that rarely fails to spontaneously arise at the end of the uncompromisingly epic first movement was discreetly but successfully shushed throughout the sold-out auditorium by vigilant connoisseurs, and the brilliant performance went on unabated. 

And that was not all. After being called back numerous times, Cho eventually sat back down at the piano again and treated us to an exciting little gift with Frédéric Chopin's ever-shifting Waltz No. 7 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 64 No. 2, which was much appreciated by all. 

After intermission, we were all back for Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, a major staple of late Romanticism, which effortlessly extended the good mood brought by good music among good people. Dvorak’s popular composition is unabashedly vibrant, joyful, and optimistic, and the consistently excellent orchestra was in particularly fine form, so we all ended up happily basking in a delicious combination of sunshine and warmth that had been sorely lacking in our lives lately. 

And then, just when we thought it was all over, maestro Honeck came back to wish us a Happy New Year with — Surprise! — my beloved Johannes Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 1! That second and final special gift of the evening was so unexpected that quite a few concertgoers had already left, but the rest of us gratefully relished yet more uplifting Romantic sounds, livened up in this case with a healthy dose of zesty folk-dance flavor, till the very last note.