Sir Simon Rattle with Rachmaninov and Stravinsky at the Lucerne Festival

They were contemporaries and compatriots – yet they could hardly have been more different: Igor Stravinsky, who took the world by storm with his sophisticated ballet music, and Sergei Rachmaninov, who is considered one of the last Romantics. Not surprisingly, the latter was not among Stravinsky’s ardent admirers – a sentiment that was entirely mutual. When the composers first met in exile in America in 1942, both tried to avoid discussing musical topics for as long as possible. Instead, they talked about their lost royalties – international copyright was not recognised in Russia at the time – and imagined the huge sums they could have earned.

The Berliner Philharmoniker and Simon Rattle opened their guest performance in Lucerne with Rachmaninov’s last orchestral work, the Symphonic Dances, which were composed on Long Island in 1940. The composer seems to take stock of his own life in these works – in shaded, beautiful sounds that sometimes have a nostalgic air, showcasing the rich sound palette of the late Romantic symphony orchestra to great effect. Stravinsky’s ballet music L’Oiseau de feu, sparkling with every imaginable colour, also creates an extraordinarily magical atmosphere. After just a minute and a half, the music flows into a rippling glissando soundscape that astonished even a composer like Richard Strauss, who heard the work for the first time in Berlin in 1912.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Sir Simon Rattle