Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 commands the second half of MSO’s opening Bravo concert – “Orchestral Brilliance” – bringing a mighty and magnificent start to the flagship series that presents Mississippi Symphony Orchestra at its most grand.
As the evening’s finale, this soaring, masterful and climactic work perfectly suits the “Season of Genius” description of Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s 81st year of bringing beautiful music to Mississippi audiences.
—
The Oct. 4 “Orchestral Brilliance” concert at Jackson Academy Performing Arts Center hails the genius that came out of early 20th century Russia and greatly enhanced the global classical music landscape. Works of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Igor Stravinsky (who both were propelled into self-exile by the Russian Revolution and later became American citizens) are featured along with works of Ukrainian composers Valentin Silvestrov and Myroslav Skoryk.
—
The romantic showmanship of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 is a natural for movie scoring.
“It’s Hollywood at its most grand,” described Richard Hudson, Orchestra Operations and Principal Horn. “Everybody steals from this piece – all the movie composers – and sometimes it’s exact… it just works so well that everybody wanted to write music like this for movies.
“It’s the music Cecil B. DeMille would write, if he wrote music,” he added, mentioning the film industry’s founder whose name has become shorthand for epic scale. “It’s ‘cinematic’ in the best, old-fashioned way of saying that – where [film companies] had all the resources and could use 1,000 extras.”
More recently, parts of Symphony No. 2 were used to poignant effect in the soundtrack of 2014 film Birdman, the intro and third movement in pop singer Eric Carmen’s 1976 hit song Never Gonna Fall in Love Again, and the third movement’s main tune in the chorus of Barry Manilow’s If I Should Love Again.
“It’s one of the great pieces of the 20th century,” Conductor Crafton Beck said. “Rachmaninoff was the recipient of Tchaikovsky’s legacy — gorgeous tunes that wrap you up in melody, harmony and orchestral color.”
As Hudson summed up Symphony No. 2, “It’s big stuff.”