Symphony to spotlight Brazilian pianist

The Vancouver Symphony will open its 30th season with a concert featuring festive music by three great Russian composers: Mikhail Glinka, Sergei Rachmaninov and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Guest pianist Geisa Dutra will make her debut with the orchestra in a performance of Rachmaninov’s popular “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” This piece consists of 24 variations on a theme written by Niccolò Paganini, the great violin virtuoso and composer. The “Rhapsody” is usually played without a break, but it does have three sections with the introduction through variation 11 serving as the first movement, variations 12 through 18 as a slow second movement, and the remaining sections as the finale.

“Rachmaninov thought that music had to have a point to which it is going,” said Dutra. “So you have to find the point in each variation and understand how all of the variations fit together. This is especially important when you come to the gorgeous variation 18 where the theme is upside down.”

Dutra, a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has a master’s degree in piano performance from the University of Washington, where she studied with the acclaimed pianist Bèla Siki. As a Seattle-based artist, Dutra has maintained a piano studio, performed widely as a soloist, and has released three recordings. She has played the “Rhapsody” twice before with other orchestras and is well aware of its challenges.

“Rachmaninov had very large hands, and he used big chords,” explained Dutra. “I am a small person; so I have to use my body and keep in a really good balance. The big chords require power, too. I have to use my upper body weight. I get very excited when I play, so I have to pace myself. You don’t use up everything too early.”

The Vancouver Symphony will also perform Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, which Tchaikovsky wrote in 1877 when his brief marriage failed and he fell into suicidal depression. Fortunately, Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy widow who loved Tchaikovsky’s work commissioned him for new works. She provided him with an annual subsidy so that he could devote his time to composing. This arrangement continued for the next 14 years in which they exchanged more than 1,200 letters yet never met or saw each other.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, which is dedicated to von Meck, has four movements, each with memorable themes. The “Fate” motif and its clash with the ebullient happiness in the finale is always a high point for anyone who wants to hear light overcome darkness.

Also on the program is the overture to “Ruslan and Lyudmila,” an opera by Glinka in which a princess is abducted by an evil dwarf before being rescued by a nobleman. The rollicking overture features lightening-quick passages for the strings, creating a thrilling ride for the audience and an uplifting start for the Vancouver Symphony’s season.