The Grand Teton Music Festival winds down its 63rd season with two Teton debuts.
Slovak conductor Juraj Valcuha, the music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, will take the baton to lead the Festival Orchestra in works by Melody Eötvös and Béla Bartók. Then, Russian-born pianist Anna Geniushene, the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition silver medalist, will join the group to solo on Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
This weekend’s concerts will open with the U.S. premiere of Australian composer Melody Eötvös’ “Pyramidion,” which GTMF Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles conducted the Australian premiere of in 2022.
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 came slowly and painfully. After the disastrous 1897 premiere of his First Symphony, the composer-pianist suffered from depression and was unable to write for years. He managed to support himself by performing, for which he was universally respected, but even that became a chore, and he ended up teaching piano and drinking a lot. Finally, some friends convinced him to work with a neurologist named Nikolai Dahl. According to various Rachmaninoff biographers, Dahl would put Rachmaninoff under hypnosis and whisper to him, “You will begin to write your concerto. … You will work with great facility. … The concerto will be of an excellent quality.” Whether it was Dahl’s subconscious exhortations or some other aspect of his therapy, Rachmaninoff found new energy for writing. He premiered his second concerto, which he dedicated to Dahl, on Nov. 9, 1901, and it has since become part of most every virtuoso pianist’s repertoire, including Rachmaninoff’s, who played it some 140 times over the rest of his career.
