Romance & Riots  

Sergey Rachmaninov  
Piano Concerto No. 3 (39’) 

INTERVAL (20’) 

Igor Stravinsky  
The Rite of Spring (33’) 

Ryan Bancroft Conductor
Yeol Eum Son Piano 

This concert is being broadcast live by BBC Radio 3 in Radio 3 in Concert and filmed for future broadcast on BBC Four’s Inside Classical. It will be available to stream or download for 30 days after broadcast via BBC Sounds, where you can also find podcasts and music mixes. Visit bbc.co.uk/now for more information on future performances.

1 Allegro ma non tanto
2 Intermezzo: Adagio – Un poco più mosso –
3 Finale: Alla breve

Yeol Eum Sonpiano

Rachmaninov completed his First Piano Concerto in 1891, when he was a student and still in his teens. His Second, so much better known today, followed a decade later. His Third was composed during the summer of 1909, in prospect of a tour he was to make the following winter of the United States, the country that would be his home for the last quarter-century of his life.

He spent the Atlantic crossing at a dummy keyboard, practising silently so as not to disturb other passengers – and needing to practise, for with this work he had set himself a formidable task. He gave the first performance in New York on 28 November 1909, at the New Theatre (justly named, for it had opened that year). After visiting other cities, he was back in New York for a second performance on 16 January 1910. The conductor was Gustav Mahler, whose care over the score greatly impressed him.

It is with a gentle throb from the orchestra that the work begins, but soon the soloist is there with a theme, very Russian-sounding and possibly based on an old chant. This is developed by pianist and orchestra, who work more together than against one another in this concerto, their common goal being to set forth as radiantly as possible the almost continuous melody. After a couple of minutes, leaving the piano behind for a moment, the orchestra turns the music from minor to major. It is as if the sun has come out. In this new light the piano can be playful but also passionate. Everything is then developed, with surges of power on the way to a solo cadenza that certainly has power of its own. Eventually the work’s opening comes back, but the reprise is compact, and leaves much more to be said.

For the slow movement Rachmaninov offers a set of variations, begun by the orchestra alone. The piano joins in and very soon makes the music even more romantic. Turning brilliant, the piano chases off in the manner of a scherzo. The movement then seems set to end as it began …

It does not, however, because the piano bounces back to lead everyone directly into a vigorous finale. This has elements of a march, with fanfares, but a lot of the ideas come out of the first movement, now delivered with new rapture.

^{Programme note © Paul Griffiths}

INTERVAL: 20 minutes

Part 1: Adoration of the Earth
Introduction – Auguries of Spring – Dances of the Young Girls – Game of Capture – Spring Round-Dances – Games of the Rival Tribes – Procession of the Sage – Adoration of the Earth – The Sage – Dance of the Earth

Part 2: The Sacrifice
Introduction – Mystic Circles of the Young Girls – Glorification of the Chosen One – Evocation of the Ancestors – Ritual Action of the Ancestors – Sacrificial Dance of the Chosen One

If you want to see into the future, your best course may be to look deep into the past. Authors of fantasy novels know this. So did those artists who, just over a century ago, revolutionised European culture by setting their sights on early times. The Rite of Spring provides a key example: Stravinsky’s aim here was to put on stage a spring ritual such as pagan people of the Russian steppe might have enacted, ending with the sacrifice of a chosen maiden who dances herself to death. He and his colleagues – Nicholas Roerich for the scenario and designs, Vaclav Nijinsky for the choreography – had to use their imaginations here, but they also did their research. Stravinsky, for instance, sought out ancient songs on which to base his music.

We hear one of them right away, high on a bassoon at the start of the ‘Introduction’, which evokes pipes calling across an empty landscape. The expectant calm is cut off by the pounding rhythm of ‘Auguries of Spring – Dances of the Young Girls’. This section accumulates layers, then breaks into a racing speed for the ‘Game of Capture’. The ‘Spring Round-ances’ move conversely at a heavy rhythm towards a threatening climax, from which the music bursts off again rapidly. A restart then leads to the exuberant ‘Games of the Rival Tribes’, with hurtling gestures and stand-offs. An awesome, menacing march is started by trombones, advancing to ‘Procession of the Sage’. There is a pause. Four quiet bars – ‘The Sage’ – suggest a moment of anticipation and a crucial act, marked by a chord for string soloists playing harmonics. This unleashes the mighty ‘Dance of the Earth’.

The second part is launched by an ‘Introduction’, a forest of colour. Trumpets sound a warning note, and horns announce the ‘Mystic Circles of the Young Girls’. Brass warnings interrupt, and a steady barrage of drumming leads into the quick slicing movements and rushes of ‘Glorification of the Chosen One’. The end is being prepared. Almost all the wind instruments lift their voices together in ‘Evocation of the Ancestors’, followed by ‘Ritual Action of the Ancestors’, which begins ominously and develops immense power. Its energy is left swilling around a few low woodwind instruments, then slips into the final ‘Sacrificial Dance of the Chosen One’.

There was a riot in the theatre when the work was first performed, in Paris on 29 May  1913. On the back of prehistory, something excitingly, disturbingly modern had arrived.

^{Programme note © Paul Griffiths}

Biographies

Ryan Bancroft conductor

Ryan Bancroft grew up in Los Angeles and first came to international attention in April 2018, when he won both First Prize and Audience Prize at the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen. Since September 2021 he has been Principal Conductor of BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Following his first visit to work with the Tapiola Sinfonietta he was invited to become its Artist-in-Association from the 2021–22 season. Last year he was announced as Chief Conductor Designate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and will take up the position next September. 

He has made debuts with a number of leading European orchestras, including the Philharmonia, London and Rotterdam Philharmonic, BBC, Danish National and Swedish Radio Symphony orchestras, Toulouse Capitole Orchestra, RAI Turin and Ensemble Intercontemporain. In North America he has worked with the Baltimore, Houston and Toronto Symphony orchestras and this season makes debuts with the Dallas Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra. He also appears for the first time at Suntory Hall with the New Japan Philharmonic and Midori, at the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia and Sir Stephen Hough and at the Royal Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Philharmonic. He also returns to the City of Birmingham, Gothenburg and Malmö Symphony orchestras.

He has a passion for contemporary music and has performed with Amsterdam’s Nieuw Ensemble, assisted Pierre Boulez in a performance of his Sur incises in Los Angeles, premiered works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Cage, Tenney and Anne LeBaron, and has worked closely with improvisers such as Wadada Leo Smith and Charlie Haden. He returns to work with the Ensemble Intercontemporain in March. 

He studied at the California Institute of the Arts, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and in the Netherlands.   

Yeol Eum Son piano

Multi-award-winning South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son is acclaimed for the power and poetry of her playing. She performs all over the world as a recitalist and concerto soloist. She is also a keen chamber musician and in 2018 was appointed Artistic Director of Music in PyeongChang festival. 

Her repertoire ranges from Bach and Mozart to Ligeti and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and she has appeared with leading orchestras, including the Bergen, Czech, Dresden, New York, St Petersburg and Sofia Philharmonic orchestras, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Tonkunstler Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Moscow Virtuosi. 

Conductors with whom she has worked include Ryan Bancroft, Dmitri Kitayenko, Valery Gergiev, Vasily Petrenko, Vladimir Spivakov, Andrew Manze, Susanna Mälkki, Krzysztof Urbański, Omer Meir Wellber, Pietari Inkinen, Jonathan Nott, Mikko Franck, Nicholas Collon, Jaime Martín, Roberto González-Monjas, Jonathon Heyward, Joana Carneiro, Pablo González, Jun Märkl, Case Scaglione, Edo de Waart, Gergely Madaras, Anja Bihlmaier and Rune Bergmann. 

This season she is Artist-in-Residence with the Hague Residentie Orchestra. Other highlights include tonight’s debut with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as with the Saint Paul and Scottish Chamber orchestras, Detroit, Finnish Radio, Melbourne, Singapore, Sydney and Tasmanian Symphony orchestras, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hanover, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias and Musikkollegium Winterthur. 

Her most recent recordings include recitals of music by Kapustin and Schumann.