Rachmaninoff Paganini Rhapsody

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Sergei Rachmaninoff declared, “I try to make my music speak simply and directly that which is in my heart.” Michael Davidman, who triumphed to win the American Piano Awards, plays Rachmaninoff’s ravishing Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. 44 years earlier, Rachmaninoff’s now-too-rarely-heard Youth Symphony showed more than mere promise. The mastery of the 18-year-old composer is astonishing. Tchaikovsky infused Ukrainian folk melodies and colorful orchestration into his blazing “Little Russian” Symphony, his first masterpiece in the form. Sponsored by the DeHaan National Orchestra Program of the American Piano Awards.