The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musicians, and a deep connection to its city. In January 2020, Jader Bignamini was named Music Director, commencing from the 2020–21 season. Leonard Slatkin, who concluded a decade-long tenure at the helm in 2018, now serves as Music Director Laureate. Jeff Tyzik is the orchestra’s Principal Pops Conductor, and Terence Blanchard holds the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair.

Making its home at Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, the DSO’s schedule features Classical, PNC Pops, Paradise Jazz, and Young People’s Family Concert series. The orchestra also presents the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series, as well as multi-genre performances at The Cube. In 1922 the DSO became the first orchestra to present a radio broadcast and continues today with the free Live from Orchestra Hall webcast series.

With growing attendance and philanthropic support, the DSO pursues a mission to inspire individuals, families, and communities through music.

For more information, visit www.dso.org.

Photo: Cybelle Codish

Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is Music Director Laureate of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), Directeur Musical Honoraire of the Orchestre National de Lyon (ONL), and Conductor Laureate of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He maintains a rigorous schedule of guest conducting throughout the world and is active as a composer, author, and educator. Slatkin has received six GRAMMY awards and 35 nominations.

One of his recent recordings is the world premiere of Alexander Kastalsky’s Requiem for Fallen Brothers commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice ending World War I. Other recent Naxos releases include works by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, and Berlioz (with the ONL) and music by Copland, Rachmaninov, Borzova, McTee, and John Williams (with the DSO). In addition, he has recorded the complete Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky symphonies with the DSO (available online as digital downloads).

A recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts, Slatkin also holds the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor. He has received the Prix Charbonnier from the Federation of Alliances Françaises, Austria’s Decoration of Honor in Silver, the League of American Orchestras’ Gold Baton Award, and the 2013 ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award for his debut book, Conducting Business. A second volume, Leading Tones: Reflections on Music, Musicians, and the Music Industry, was published by Amadeus Press in 2017. His latest book, Classical Crossroads: The Path Forward for Music in the 21st Century (2021), is available through Rowman & Littlefield.

Slatkin has conducted virtually all the leading orchestras in the world. As Music Director, he has held posts in New Orleans; St. Louis; Washington, DC; London (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra); Detroit; and Lyon, France. He has also served as Principal Guest Conductor in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Cleveland.

www.leonardslatkin.com

After study at the St Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories, Sergey Rachmaninov embarked on a career in Russia as a composer, pianist and conductor. Exile from his own country after the Communist Revolution of 1917 forced an increased concentration on performance as one of the most distinguished pianists of the day, activity that enabled him to support his family but left less time for his work as a composer. For practical reasons he eventually based himself in the United States, while keeping a villa in Switzerland. He died in Beverly Hills in 1943.

Orchestral Music

The second of Rachmaninov’s four piano concertos holds an unchallenged position among Romantic works in this form, its popularity closely rivalled by the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra. While the Symphonic Dances of 1940 enjoy some popularity, as well as the symphonic poem The Rock and the dark-hued Isle of the Dead, with its recurrent motif from the Latin Requiem Mass, the second of his three numbered symphonies is still more familiar. His First Symphony had a disastrous first performance under Glazunov in 1897 but has more to recommend it than critics of the time suggested. Of the other piano concertos, the first, written while he was still a student, proved effective enough; the third, technically demanding for the performer but popular with audiences, is more organically structured than the second; and the fourth, composed abroad in 1926 and revised in 1941, has never found a significant place in solo repertoire.

Piano Music

Rachmaninov’s Prelude in C sharp minor won early popularity that largely outweighed its merits. Other piano works include the Études-tableaux of 1911 and 1916–17, two sonatas, sets of preludes and moments musicaux, transcriptions (including the two Kreisler pieces Liebesleid and Liebesfreud), and the impressive Variations on a Theme of Corelli (his last original composition for solo piano, composed in 1931 and based on the popular Baroque dance theme of La folia, also used by Corelli in a violin sonata).

Chamber Music

Rachmaninov, in his earlier career, wrote a small number of works for instrumental ensemble. Notable among these are the compositions for cello and piano dedicated to Tchaikovsky’s friend, the cellist Anatoli Brandukov. They include a fine sonata as well as the Prelude and Danse orientale that form Opus 2. His Vocalise, originally just that (a wordless song), is also a familiar element in cello repertoire. The second of his two Trios élégiaques, written in 1893, a year after the first, mourns the death of Tchaikovsky.