TARMO PELTOKOSKI / SENJA RUMMUKAINEN

Unsatisfied with his cello concerto, Prokofiev reworked it before eventually producing the Sinfonia Concertante. In this work, he relied on the invaluable assistance of a performer who helped him discover new instrumental possibilities: his friend Rostropovich, then still a young performer but already a phenomenon, much like the Finnish pianist Senja Rummukainen, a finalist in the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition. As for Rachmaninoff, following the failure of his Symphony No. 1, he composed a Second Symphony which earned him the title of ‘a worthy successor to Tchaikovsky’. Its intoxicating lyricism has ensured that it remains his most popular work.