On Thursday, February 29th, Oulu Sinfonia will host the latest winner of the international Maj Lind Piano Competition from the year 2022. Piotr Pawlak, hailing from Gdansk, Poland, captivated audiences with his unique interpretations and stage charisma. Before winning the international Maj Lind Piano Competition, Pawlak was already a seasoned competitor with numerous first and second place victories in high-level international piano competitions. Having studied piano and orchestral conducting at the Gdansk Music Academy, and mathematics at the University of Gdansk, Pawlak has also achieved success as an organist and in composition competitions such as the Transatlantic Composition Competition in Katowice, as well as in mathematics.
In the One Thousand and One Nights concert, Pawlak will interpret Sergei Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto with Oulu Sinfonia under the baton of conductor Mihhail Gerts. Rachmaninoff was one of the most celebrated pianists of his time, and his breakthrough as a composer and pianist came with his second piano concerto. The third piano concerto, now heard, was composed during Rachmaninoff’s first tour of the United States in the summer of 1909. The concerto demands virtuosity from the performer: there are many notes, often extremely fast and dense, with plenty of material piled on top. For a long time, only Rachmaninoff himself dared to tackle the concerto. It wasn’t until Vladimir Horowitz recorded the concerto in 1930 that its popularity began to grow. While there were occasionally shortened and simplified versions of the piece performed, the simplified version is no longer heard in 21st-century concerts.
The second half of the concert introduces the four-part orchestral suite Scheherazade by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, based on the popular collection of Middle Eastern folk tales One Thousand and One Nights.
Conductor Mihhail Gerts is a familiar and eagerly anticipated guest for both the orchestra and the audience in Oulu. He belongs to the constellation of internationally renowned Estonian conductors and has successfully debuted as a conductor with several prestigious orchestras. His recent acquaintances include the Italian Orchestre Nazionale delĺ Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the French Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Mihhail Gerts is the artistic director of the TubIN Festival, dedicated to the music of Estonian composer Eduard Tubin.
Text: Oulu Sinfonia
Photo: Piotr Pawlak, c Zdjecia Kymi
One Thousand and One Nights
Thu 29th February 2024 at 7 PM, Madetoja Hall
Mihhail Gerts conductor
Piotr Pawlak piano
Oulu Sinfonia
Programme:
Sergey Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
—
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, Op. 35