ConcertPulse
Symphoniker Hamburg / Simone Lamsma / Geoffrey Paterson
Laeiszhalle, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
Three works composed in the USA build a bridge from the colonisation of America into the 21st century. James Lee III sees his work Ameri’can, which was premiered in 2021, as a direct response to Dvořák’s »From the New World« symphony and imagines scenes from a time before colonisation by the Europeans. From 1941, his compatriot Samuel Barber enjoyed great success with the emotional Violin Concerto, Op. 14. In contrast, Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony was, after its premiere in New York in 1936, written off by critics as the old-fashioned work of an aging composer. It is true that the symphony features folk-like themes and romantic reveries, but Rachmaninov firmly contrasts that bearing with metrical switching and modern harmony, thereby invalidating criticism that the work indulged in Russian traditionalism.