VFO / KLAUS MÄKELÄ / YUNCHAN LIM

The Isle of the Dead is a singular piece in Rachmaninoff’s compositions; a sort of macabre, labyrinthine version of Mendelssohn’s Fingals Cave, inspired not by Arnold Böcklin’s famous painting of the same name, but by a black-and-white reproduction of it; so much so that when the composer discovered the real painting in colour, he was so disappointed that he admitted he would never have composed The Isle of the Dead if he had first been shown the original!  

A work marked by the weight of the tragedies that marked the composer’s life in the 1910s and 1920s, the Fourth Piano Concerto carries with it the anguish of the composer’s exile, followed by the tragedy of the premature death of his son-in-law. Misunderstood by the critics of the time, favouring poetry over raw virtuosity, Rachmaninoff imposed numerous revisions on his work, which nevertheless constitutes a fascinating biographical testimony to this period in the life of the composer, who was also influenced by the music of his adopted country, and that of Gershwin in particular.  

Rehabilitated by Klaus Mäkelä since a recording with the Orchestre de Paris that continues to garner praise, the original version of The Firebird, which rediscovers its sense of narrative with its original version, highlights the composer’s Rimskian filiation and the poetic ductility of his discourse.