Bern, Switzerland – Berner Symphonieorchester – Tchaikovsky, Chopin

Vasily Petrenko, conductor
Nikolai Lugansky, piano
Berner Symphonieorchester

PROGRAMME
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky (1840–1893): Symphony No. 1 in G minor op. 13 “Winter Dreams” (1866, rev. 1874)

VENUE NOTE
Following his acclaimed interpretation of Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 last year, world star Nikolai Lugansky returns to Bern with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 – under the direction of Vasily Petrenko, who stepped down from all his positions in his native Russia in spring 2022 and now works, among other things, as Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Chopin premiered his Piano Concerto No. 1 in Warsaw in October 1830 – on the eve of the November Uprising of the Poles against Russian rule in the country. Just a few days later, Chopin was to leave his beloved Polish homeland for Paris, never to see it again, as the consequences of the failed uprising and the enforced Russification of Poland made a return impossible. His elegantly sparkling Piano Concerto No. 1 remains a moving document of a time of hope for Poland’s independence and freedom and is today one of his most popular works. While Chopin composed his concerto in a relatively short time, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky tormented himself for almost two years over the composition of his first symphonic work. Tchaikovsky’s struggles are not evident in the work: with youthful freshness, the composer succeeds in delivering a declaration of love for the Russian winter. In the first movement, for example, he depicts a magical sleigh ride that would even make Father Frost dream.