What does America sound like? Perhaps like Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin’s early stroke of genius. Just listen to the opening clarinet solo with its long, swooping glissando and you immediately picture the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan, Broadway, or a smoky New York jazz club. Born in 2001, Alexander Malofeev – Russian by birth and now based in Berlin — will perform this “greatest hit” with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. And he’s the perfect choice: he thrilled audiences here in 2024 when, under Riccardo Chailly, he performed Rachmaninoff’s fiendishly difficult First Piano Concerto with a virtuosity, assurance, and poetry that were simply unmatched. But Malofeev is also a musical treasure-hunter, drawn to uncovering lesser-known repertoire. One such find is the Second Piano Concerto by the Finnish composer Selim Palmgren, who died in 1951 and whose music will be heard at the Festival for the very first time. It is lushly Romantic — a perfect bridge to Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, which Michael Sanderling conducts following intermission. And this musical “confession of the soul” strikes straight at the heart.
