Your preview is loading...

The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s final work for solo piano and orchestra, was completed in 1934 and premiered that same year in Baltimore on November 7. Rachmaninoff was the piano soloist, performing with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. That Christmas Eve, those same musicians recorded the work for RCA. This priceless historical treasure (think of what we would give for recordings of Mozart, Beethoven or Chopin interpreting their own compositions!) continues to be available for purchase and listening. 

Rachmaninoff’s prodigious technique, which allowed him to negotiate the most difficult passages with ease and clarity, is evident throughout the 1934 recording. Equally striking is a lack of the interpretive indulgences and excesses many assume to be essential to late-Romantic repertoire. But Rachmaninoff’s taut, straightforward (and flawlessly executed) rendition of his Rhapsody is ideally suited to a work notable for its unity of construction, logical sequential argument, inexorable progression, and admirable partnership of soloist and orchestra. 

While the term “Rhapsody” traditionally suggests a rather free-flowing piece, Rachmaninoff’s composition is, in fact, a tightly organized series of twenty-four variations on the principal theme of the Caprice No. 24 for solo violin by the Italian virtuoso and composer Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840). Although the Rhapsody is performed as a single continuous movement, it also divides rather neatly into four sections: Variations I-XI constitute the opening fast portion (with cadenza), Variations XII-XV are a combination minuet and scherzo, Variations XVI-XVIII offer a slow-tempo interlude, and Variations XIX-XXIV constitute the lively, concluding portion. 

The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini teems with felicities that, at every turn, display Rachmaninoff's skill and imagination as a composer. Take, for example, the work's opening measures, in which the first variation precedes the introduction of the theme itself! Rachmaninoff’s preoccupation with the ancient Dies Irae chant is well documented, and it is fascinating to see how the composer weaves this music into Variations VII, X, and XXIV. Certainly the inclusion of the Dies Irae (“Day of Wrath”), as well as the use of the bone-rattling col legno effects in Variation IX, inject a diabolical element into the Rhapsody (rumors circulated during Paganini’s life that he acquired his phenomenal virtuosity via a contract with the Devil). Even the unforgettable Andante cantabile melody in Variation XVIII is the product of a bit of compositional legerdemain, as it is derived from an inversion of the original Paganini theme. 

Rachmaninoff believed that each musical piece contained what he termed “the point,” the work’s culminating moment. In the Rhapsody, “the point” bursts onto the scene in the concluding variation, with the Paganini theme overwhelmed by a blazing account of the Dies Irae. Still, Rachmaninoff offers one last delightful surprise, as the Rhapsody ends not with the expected orchestral bang. Instead, the soloist teases the listener with a hushed fragment of the Paganini theme.

- Program notes by Nancy Galbraith

Sergei Prokofiev left Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution for almost two decades of voluntary exile in the West. Eventually homesickness got the better of him, and he decided in the mid-1930s to resettle in his homeland for good. Back in the USSR, Prokofiev faced the dangerous challenge of navigating his way through Soviet cultural policy, which dictated that a work of art must be accessible to the masses while affirming the utopian ideals of a society that preached radical egalitarianism.

With the fifth of his seven symphonies, Prokofiev attained the high point of his public success in the Soviet Union—even receiving the sort of acclaim usually reserved for a military hero. When he lifted his baton to conduct the world premiere in Moscow in January 1945, the distant sounds of artillery reverberated in the concert hall: salvos celebrating the Red Army’s latest victory against the Germans as they crossed the Vistula River.

In November 1945, shortly after Serge Koussevitzky led the Boston Symphony in the American premiere, Prokofiev even appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Its lengthy report on the state of Soviet music described the Fifth as “a great, brassy creation with some of the intricate efficiency and dynamic energy of a Soviet power plant and some of the pastoral lyricism of a Chekhov countryside.”

Prokofiev himself described his Fifth Symphony as a work intended “to sing the praises of the free and happy man.” He believed it represented “the culmination of an entire period in [his] work.” At the same time, the struggle of the war is clearly a significant influence on the work’s epic design. Despite the intense stress of the war—Prokofiev and other artists were evacuated to remote regions of the Soviet Union while Moscow was still in danger—the composer benefited from a prolific burst of creativity during these years. 

The Fifth traces a course aimed at apparent “victory” at the conclusion that echoes Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony as the model for the journey from darkness over light. Prokofiev designs a notable internal symmetry among the four movements: the first and third, similar in proportion, are relatively slow and contain the weightiest music, while aspects of the fast-paced second and fourth movements mirror each other.

- Program notes by Thomas May

Described by Classical Voice of North Carolina (CVNC) as an “impressive conductor…outstanding in his attention to detail and his command of the big picture”, Hong Kong-born conductor Ho-Yin Kwok is a three-time winner of The American Prize, 2021, winner of 2017-2018 Vincent C. LaGuardia, Jr. Conducting Competition and 2021 International Conductors Workshop and Competition. Recently concluded an 8-year tenure as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, Kwok is the Director of Orchestras at Ithaca College, New York. He also serves as Music Director of Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in Duluth, Minnesota.

Having established a nationwide reputation, Ho-Yin Kwok’s recent guest conducting engagements include the New World Symphony, the Syracuse Orchestra, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Arapahoe Philharmonic, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Eastern Festival Orchestra, and Collegium Musicum Hong Kong. He also has been invited to serve as cover conductor for the Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Kansas City Symphony. In the 2025-2026 season, he will make his debut with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as well as conducting the season opener for Syracuse Orchestra at the Masterworks Series.

An avid music educator, Ho-Yin Kwok directs the Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta, and Contemporary Chamber Ensemble at Ithaca College. He has previously served as the Director of the Duluth Superior Youth Symphony and in the faculty of Eastern Kentucky University and University of Minnesota Duluth. His recent educational guest conducting engagements include All-State Orchestras, Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, and Foster Music Camp. He was invited as adjudicator for concerto competitions such as those of Minnesota Orchestra Young People's Symphony Concert Association, University of Minnesota, University of Kentucky, and Cornell University. In the 2025-2026 season, he will conduct the All-state Orchestras of California and Maine.

Ho-Yin Kwok is a first prize winner of The American Prize in opera conducting. He had served as Music Director of the Opera Theatre at University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. He enjoys conducting operas of a wide range of periods and styles, including those by Mozart, Puccini, Britten and Menotti. He was the instigating artistic force behind the formation of opera orchestra at Eastern Kentucky University and has collaborated professionally with Arbeit Opera Theatre and Lyric Opera of the North. In the 2021-22 season, Kwok gave one of the first performances of Laura Kaminsky’s new opera, Hometown to the World. He is looking forward to conducting Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard's Castle in the spring of 2026.

Known for his passion in diversifying the orchestral concert repertoire, Ho-Yin Kwok has been involved in multiple initiatives and special projects. With the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, he created the annual Foreground Composers Series, a year-round celebration and in-depth research on an underrepresented composer. This ongoing project has led to numerous US premieres of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Ruth Gipps, Ina Boyle, and Bao Yuankai, along with many other neglected composers. Kwok is also a panel member of …And we were heard, a national initiative to promote contemporary music and composers of underrepresented backgrounds.

Ho-Yin Kwok studied conducting at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities and the University of Iowa. His principal teachers are Mark Russell Smith and William LaRue Jones. His other important mentors are Gerard Schwarz, Kevin Noe, Cristian Măcelaru, Giancarlo Guerrero, the Ensō String Quartet, Brentano Quartet, Joel Krosnick, David Shifrin, Kathy Saltzman Romey, and Grant Cooper. He is a Marquis Who’s Who biographical listee.

Hailed by the press as a "...breathtaking" and "...stunning" pianist, Dmitri Novgorodsky was born into a musical family in Odessa, Ukraine.  He began to play the piano at age five and was admitted into a special music school for gifted children in Almaty, Kazakhstan a year later. By the age of 16, he had won the First Prize at the Kazakhstan’s National Piano Competition, and later the Gold Medal of the National Festival of the Arts. Mr. Novgorodsky graduated from the studio of Professor Victor Merzhanov at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with high honors in 1990.

In 1992, he was offered a full scholarship for advanced studies at Yale University School of Music in the United States. Under the tutelage of Professor Boris Berman, he earned the Master of Music, the Master of Musical Arts, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. Currently, Mr. Novgorodsky is the first and the only Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory graduate in Piano Performance to have earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance degree from Yale. In 1999, he was granted the Extraordinary Abilities in the Arts permanent US residence, "as one of a small percentage of those who have risen to the top in their field of endeavor".

Mr. Novgorodsky has appeared in Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Israel, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Canada, Spain, Turkey, and Taiwan. In the United States, he has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall (New York City); the Kennedy Center; the WLFN Talent Showcase (Philadelphia); the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, WI (in live broadcast solo recitals). Among the highlights have been performances at the Center for Advanced Musical Research in Istanbul (sponsored through the US Department of State Artist Abroad Award); solo recitals at the Kazakhstan's Kurmangazy National Conservatory of Music; collaborative  performances at the Deià International Music Festival/Palau March Summer Concert series and a solo recital at the Conservatori Superior de Músicade les Illes Balears with master class for the International Piano Cátedra 'Alicia de Larrocha' in Palma de Mallorca, Spain; appearances as concerto soloist and chamber musician at the Talalyan Brothers Festival in Erevan, Armenia  and Forte Music Fest in Almaty, Kazakhstan; solo and piano duo recital at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Russia with Yuri Didenko; 4-hand piano collaborations with Xak Bjerken at Cornell University's 'Mayfest'; piano duo with Miri Yampolsky; violin/piano with Susan Waterbury; viola/piano with David Rose; cello/piano with Elisabeth Simkin; concerto performances with Kazakhstan State Philarmonic Orchestra, Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Fox Valley Symphony, Temple Symphony, Lawrence Symphony, Fredonia College Symphony Orchestra, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, and Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra (visit the personal website to read more reviews).

One of the four chamber compositions by contemporary authors Mr. Novgorodsky has premiered - "Prophecy from 47 Ursae Majoris" for clarinet and piano by Andrew Paul MacDonald - won the Third International Web Concert Hall Competition, was performed at Carnegie Hall with Yamaha performing artist, Arthur Campbell, and became a part of the CD Premieres, released on the ‘Gasparo’ label. A CD of pieces for oboe and piano by the 20th century Russian-Soviet composers, recorded in collaboration with Professor Mark Fink, was released by the UW Madison Press and has been commercially available in 18 countries. A CD of cello transcriptions for double bass and piano, recorded with Dr. Michael Klinghoffer at the Eden-Tamir Music Center in Jerusalem, Israel, was  released on the ‘Shikidri Recordings’ label in Japan and critically acclaimed as a "fascinating release". A recording of Stephen Hartke’s “Sonata for Piano Four-Hands” with Dr. Xak Bjerken is awaiting its release.

In July 2019, Mr. Novgorodsky's judged the Chautauqua Piano Program's Solo Competition and presented a masterclass. In July-August 2019, he taught, coached chamber music, presented a masterclass and performed at the "InterHarmony" International Music Festival as a soloist and collaborator. His solo performance received high acclaim in the German press("...a terrific musical experience, played freely with intellectual and emotional power"). Dmitri Novgorodsky is on the piano faculty of Music Fest Perugia, the largest festival for young classical musicians in Italy.

During his Fall 2023 sabbatical in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Dr. Novgorodsky participated in music festivals, taught master classes in the Baiseitova and Zhubanov special pre-college institutions for gifted musicians, and performed a solo recital at the Grand Hall of the Kurmangazy National Conservatory.

Dr. Novgorodsky's pedagogical expertise comprises 25 years of university teaching. His students have continued their graduate studies at Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes, New York University, New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Peabody Conservatory, Northwestern University, University of Colorado Boulder, Boston University, University of Texas at Austin. He has been a piano faculty at Grand Valley State University, University of Wisconsin, Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, SUNY Fredonia School of Music.

He joined the Ithaca College School of Music in 2015 and attained the rank of Associate Professor in 2020.

VIOLIN I
Cristian Rodriguez,
concertmaster
Marie Nemeth, assistant
concertmaster
Noor Rouhana
Valerian Connor
Mackenzie VanVoorhis
Marisol McDowell
Andrew Neal
Julia Chu
Naveen Tomlinson
Katalena Hume
Imogene Zybala
Jaxon Yeagy

VIOLIN II
Maya Connolly, principal
Rachel Berger, assistant
principal
Jonas Chen
Lily Lemery-Allen
Max Lines
Sarah Chruscicki
Marvin Juarez Espinoza
Abby Marchesani
Paige Wilkins
Lily Huwer
Joshua Chang
Jade Vadeboncoeur
Deandre Simmons

VIOLA
Zoe Galgoczy, principal
Elijah Shenk, assistant
principal
Breanna Annonio
Zacchary Pierre
Sasha Narea
Agena Malziu
Andrei Popovici

CELLO
Ariel Alejandro, principal
Eli Jort, assistant principal
Ian Croker
Tom Bowstead
Emilia Lyons
Heather Cruz
Elijah Shin
Molly Davey
Jonah Harley
Emily Donohue
Nina Hughes
Chiara Marino
Miles Summerlin

DOUBLE BASS
Sophia Gates, principal
Alexa Markowitz, assistant
principal
Jack Bradway
Jake Smith
Nellie Cordi
Matt Argus

FLUTE
Madi Connor, principal
Tori Hollerbach, co-principal
Hannah McAlpine

PICCOLO
Tori Hollerbach, principal
Madi Connor, co-principal

OBOE
Reid Canham, principal
Amanda Haussmann

ENGLISH HORN
Cole Trenkelbach, principal

CLARINET
Liam Kearney, principal
Fitz McAlpine, co-principal

BASS CLARINET
Anthony Angelillo, principal

E-FLAT CLARINET
Phoebe Donaghy-Robinson, principal

BASSOON
Meg Moriarty, principal
Dylan Frey, co-principal
Thomas German

CONTRABASSOON
Thomas German, principal

HORN
Finny Keefe, principal
Eliza Ferrara, co-principal
Madison Stolarski
Orpheus Tulloch

TRUMPET
Juliet Arau, principal
Lizzy Carvell, co-principal
Thomas Papke

TROMBONE
Gabriel Ramos, principal
Miguel Lopez, co-principal
Isiah Owens, bass trombone

TUBA
David Castro, principal

TIMPANI
John Santucci, principal
Rebecca Mueller

PERCUSSION
Rebecca Mueller, principal
John Santucci
Brayden Reed
Olivia Okin
Tommy Anzuini
Aiden Dearborn

PIANO
Advika Balaji, principal

HARP
Elizabeth Mayo, principal