Pletnev’s Musical World Distilled

Under Mikhail Pletnev, the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra made a strong impression in the festival’s grand finale. The Schumann Violin Concerto in D minor with violinist Daniel Lozakovich emerged as the first highlight of the evening, with soloist and orchestra shaping the work into a single, unified narrative that eloquently reflected Schumann’s inner world in the final years of his life.

In the second half, the RIO conveyed Rachmaninoff’s The Rock with deep, dark string sonorities, rich orchestral colors, and a steadily intensifying emotional trajectory. The evening’s final work, Pletnev’s Rachmaniana, proved the highlight of the concert, with subtle changes of timbre, chamber-music-like dialogues among the woodwinds, and a transparent yet densely textured sound that distilled Pletnev’s musical world.

I look forward to the day, hopefully before too long, when Pletnev and his world-class orchestra return to the Korean stage.

– Son Ui-yeon, Edaily, July 14, 2026