The Philadelphia Orchestra & Marin Alsop with Yunchan Lim
A very boisterous potpourri of student songs à la Suppé. — Brahms's own name for the “Academic Festival Overture,” the piece he wrote in 1880 · in thanks for an honorary doctorate
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The people onstage ⏳🌊
- PianoYunchan Lim
Born in 2004. Studied with Minsoo Sohn at the Korea National University of Arts. In 2022, at eighteen, won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, becoming the youngest winner in its history. The work performed in that final was this very Rachmaninoff Third, and the conductor on the podium was Marin Alsop. The victory was followed by an exclusive contract with Decca Classics.
- ConductorMarin Alsop
Born in New York in 1956. She studied violin at the Juilliard School and learned conducting from Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. In 2007 she became music director of the Baltimore Symphony, the first woman to lead a major American orchestra, and in 2013 she became the first woman to conduct the 'Last Night' of the BBC Proms. In 2022 she conducted the finals of the Cliburn Competition, sharing the stage for Yunchan Lim's winning performance.
- OrchestraThe Philadelphia Orchestra
Founded in 1900. The lush, silken string tone that Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy refined over more than half a century is known as the 'Philadelphia sound.' Its bond with Rachmaninoff runs deep — he recorded his own concertos as soloist with this orchestra, and dedicated his last work, Symphonic Dances, to Ormandy and the ensemble. In 1973 it became the first American orchestra to visit the People's Republic of China.
- Composer · soloist at the Concerto No. 3 premiereSergei Rachmaninoff
He wrote No. 3 in 1909 for his first American tour, and that November in New York he premiered it himself as soloist. The following January he played it again with the New York Philharmonic under Gustav Mahler. The work is dedicated to the pianist Josef Hofmann, yet Hofmann never once performed it in public.
I. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 — a vast song written for America · 1909
(Tour) In the summer of 1909, on the eve of his first American concert tour, Rachmaninoff wrote this concerto. Composed for his own hands to play, it set down in notation the composer's own large hands and formidable technique, and it is still counted among the most difficult of all piano concertos. The soloist at the New York premiere that November was Rachmaninoff himself. (Opening) And yet the opening is astonishingly plain. Over a brief pulse in the orchestra, the piano sings a single-line melody, both hands doubled in octaves. It has long been said to resemble Russian Orthodox chant, but the composer would say only that 'it wrote itself.' This one line returns, transformed, throughout all 40 minutes. (Two cadenzas) For the cadenza at the end of the 1st movement, Rachmaninoff left two versions: the light, rapid original, and a version of massive chords marked 'ossia' in the score. Which one a pianist chooses reveals their temperament — the first passage to listen for in the hall. (Ending) The 2nd-movement intermezzo passes without a break into the 3rd movement, and the finale, by way of march and gallop, drives toward a colossal climax in D major. In June 2022 in Fort Worth, eighteen-year-old Yunchan Lim played this work under Marin Alsop's baton and sealed his victory at the Cliburn Competition. 4 years later, the same work and the same conductor meet again in Seoul — only the orchestra has changed, to the one with the deepest ties to Rachmaninoff.
The live final in which Yunchan Lim clinched the title, conducted by Marin Alsop. Soloist·conductor·work are all the same as in this concert. The finals video released by the Cliburn Competition.
- The first melody — one line sung by both hands in octaves, and how plainly it begins
- 1st-movement cadenza — the original, or the ossia?
- End of the 3rd movement — the D-major peak where piano and orchestra surge together
The same work with a different soloist. Note where the choices of tempo and cadenza diverge, and in the hall you will begin to hear 'Yunchan Lim's choices.'
- 1st-movement opening melody — how its breathing differs from the first video
- Cadenza — first check whether it's the same version as in the first video
- 2nd movement — the moment the piano enters as the orchestral introduction ends
II. R. Strauss, Don Juan — a call to arms at twenty-four · 1889
(Tone poem) A tone poem Richard Strauss wrote at twenty-four, based on Nikolaus Lenau's unfinished poem “Don Juan.” Premiered in Weimar in November 1889 with the composer conducting, it made his reputation at a stroke. It was the work that first stamped his name on the world. (Leap) From the very start the strings surge upward from below in a great leap — the hero bounding onto the stage. In the love scenes that follow, solo violin and oboe sing in turn, and the long oboe solo in particular is the stillest moment in the piece. (Horns) Breaking that stillness, four horns sing a heroic theme in unison, and it has become the work's emblem. It is one of the passages most often demanded in orchestral auditions — the place to hear how the brass of the 'Philadelphia sound' rings out. (Ending) At a blazing climax the music suddenly stops. After a long silence come a dark E-minor chord and a few string pizzicatos — the hero's death. Audiences who expected a triumphant close hesitate to applaud at this ending, so wait until the sound has fully died away.
Start once with the best-quality live recording. The leap·love·heroism·death are all there within 18 minutes.
- Opening — the strings' leap, surging upward from below
- Middle — the long oboe solo, the stillest moment in the piece
- Ending — the silence after the climax and the dark final E-minor chord
A live performance of Marin Alsop conducting the orchestra of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. It is a student ensemble, but a good preview of how Alsop drives the pace and tension of this work.
- Alsop's tempo — how hard she drives the opening leap
- The four-horn theme — how far the conductor puts the brass forward
- The length of the final silence
III. Brahms, Academic Festival Overture — an honorary doctor's thank-you · 1880
(A thank-you) In 1879 the University of Breslau awarded Brahms an honorary doctorate, and the university expected celebratory music in return. Brahms wrote this overture in the summer of 1880 at Bad Ischl — that same summer he also wrote its temperamental opposite, the Tragic Overture — and conducted the premiere himself in Breslau in January 1881. (Student songs) To those expecting a solemn ceremonial piece, Brahms offered a medley of the songs German university students of the day sang over their drinks. “Wir hatten gebaut ein stattliches Haus,” the “Song of the Father of the Nation (Landesvater),” and the freshman initiation song “Was kommt dort von der Höh'?” appear in turn, and when two bassoons answer drolly, the audience can hardly keep from laughing. (Gaudeamus) At the close the full orchestra unfurls the Latin student song “Gaudeamus igitur” in grand style. An overture, usually placed to open a concert, this time comes at the very end — closing the night with a festive procession.
A live performance from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra's official channel. A 10-minute procession in which the student songs pass by one by one.
- Introduction — a quiet, dark C-minor start, hardly festive
- Middle — the freshman song, answered drolly by two bassoons
- Ending — the full orchestra's “Gaudeamus igitur”
Not on this program, but a live performance that offers a preview of Brahms under Alsop's baton. Written three years before the overture, it is Brahms's sunniest symphony, and it is also the second-half work of the Vienna Philharmonic's October 25 concert.
- Alsop's Brahms — how fully the strings are made to sing
- Fourth movement — from a hushed opening to the final trombones
- Brass from the overture's composer — the weight of a last flowering
IV. A listening route — what to hear in the hall
(Order) First, watch Yunchan Lim's Cliburn final all the way through once. It is the record of this concert's two protagonists meeting in the same piece four years ago. Next, listen once to another soloist's Third and compare which version of the first-movement cadenza they choose. For Don Juan and the overture, one hearing each is enough. (In the Rachmaninoff) How plainly the opening melody begins, the choice of first-movement cadenza, and whether the piano cuts through the orchestra at the climax at the end of the third movement. If anything has changed since the 2022 video, that is what four years amount to. (In Don Juan) The leap of the opening, the long oboe solo, the theme for four horns — and the final silence. Waiting to applaud until the sound has vanished completely is the courtesy this piece is owed. (In the overture) Follow how the character shifts as each student song appears in turn, then wait for the moment in the closing “Gaudeamus” when the whole orchestra gathers as one. Just before the encore, it is the last chord of the night.
Terminology notes 📚🔎
Ossia
Italian for 'or.' Used when the score writes out two paths and leaves the performer to choose. In the first movement of Rachmaninoff's Third, the heavy-chorded version of the cadenza is known as the 'ossia cadenza.'
Symphonic poem
A genre that depicts literary content — a poem, a novel, a painting — in a single orchestral movement. Liszt gave it its name, and Richard Strauss opened a new era for the genre with Don Juan.
Gaudeamus igitur
A Latin student song that begins 'So let us rejoice.' It is still sung at matriculation and graduation ceremonies at European universities. It crowns the close of the Academic Festival Overture.
Cadenza
The place near the end of a concerto movement where the orchestra falls silent and the soloist alone displays their skill. Rachmaninoff wrote out two of them himself for the Third.