Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2
Gulbenkian Orchestra
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Date
- 20:00 / Cancelled 20:00 / Sold out Thursday, 20:00
- 19:00 / Cancelled 19:00 / Sold out Friday, 19:00
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationThis concert will be broadcast live here on 24 May, at 19:00.
Pricing
25% – Under 30
10% – Over 65
Cartão Gulbenkian:
50% – Under 30
15% – Over 65
- Conductor
- Piano
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Gulbenkian Orchestra
In 1962, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to establish a permanent orchestral ensemble. Originally with only twelve musicians (strings and continuo) it was named “Orquestra de Câmara Gulbenkian”. This collective was successively enlarged and today the “Orquestra Gulbenkian” (the name it has adopted since 1971) has a permanent body of sixty instrumentalists, a number that can be expanded depending on the repertoire.
This structure allows the Gulbenkian Orchestra to interpret works from the Baroque and Classical periods, a significant part of 19th century orchestral literature and much of the music of the 20th century, including works belonging to the current repertoire of the traditional symphonic orchestras. In each season, the orchestra performs on a regular series of concerts at the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium in Lisbon, where it has had the opportunity of working together with some of leading names of the world of music (conductors and soloists). It has also performed on numerous locations all over Portugal, in an effort to decentralize music and culture.
The orchestra has been constantly expanding its activities in the international level, performing in Europe, Asia Africa, and the Americas. In the recording field, Orquestra Gulbenkian is associated to labels as Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Teldec, Erato, Adès, Nimbus, Lyrinx, Naïve and Pentatone, among others, and this activity was recognized with several international prizes.
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Nuno Coelho
Conductor
Nuno has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Spain’s Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias since October 2022. In addition to concerts in Oviedo, the 2024/25 season sees him return to Antwerp Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE, and debut with Stavanger Symphony, Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg and Minnesota Orchestra.
Highlights of recent seasons have included concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Frankfurt’s hr-Sinfonieorchester, Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo, Orquesta Nacional de España, Dresden Philharmonie, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Residentie Orkest, Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, and Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona.
In the opera pit, Nuno has conducted productions of La traviata, Cavalleria rusticana, Rusalka and Manon. In November 2022 he conducted his own staging of José Saramago’s reimagining of Don Giovanni at the Gulbenkian, having previously conducted their semi-staging of Così fan tutte the previous season. 2026 will see Nuno return to Ópera de Oviedo for Manon Lescaut.
Nuno won First Prize at the 2017 Cadaqués International Conducting Competition and has since gone on to conduct the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Symphoniker Hamburg, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Noord Nederlands Orkest and Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino. He was a Los Angeles Philharmonic Dudamel Fellow between 2018-19 and stepped in for Bernard Haitink that same season to make his debut with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
Born in Porto, Nuno studied conducting at the Zürich University of the Arts with Johannes Schlaefli and won the Neeme Järvi Prize at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival. In 2015 he was admitted into the German Music Council’s Dirigentenforum and for the following two years he was both a Tanglewood Conducting Fellow and Assistant Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic.
Literature and tennis occupy his time off-podium.
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Nikolai Lugansky
Piano
Pianist Nikolai Lugansky is renowned for his interpretations of Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Chopin and Debussy. He has received numerous awards for recordings and artistic merit.
He collaborates regularly with conductors of the calibre of K. Nagano, Y. Temirkanov, M. Honeck, G. Noseda, S. Kochanovsky, V. Petrenko, L. Shani and he is invited by leading international orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orquestra Nacional de España.
Described by Gramophone as “the most trailblazing and meteoric performer of all”, Nikolai Lugansky is a pianist of extraordinary depth and versatility. He is invited by some of the world's most distinguished festivals, including the Aspen, Tanglewood, Ravinia and Verbier festivals. Chamber music collaborators include Vadim Repin, Alexander Kniazev, Mischa Maisky and Leonidas Kavakos.
In 2023, he celebrated the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninov's birth by performing cycles of monographic programs at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Wigmore Hall in London, along with other performances throughout Europe, including at the Konzerthaus in Vienna and Berlin, the Bozar in Brussels, the Rudolfinum in Prague and the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
“Lugansky's mastery of the piano is outstanding: over the years, his sonority has broadened and become denser, his palette of sounds even more diverse as his stature as a musician has asserted itself. […] He is in the moment and in the projection of that moment into the greater whole of a work that he makes accessible: he hears everything and lets us hear it without explaining it, letting the music happen without interfering.” (Bachtrack).
This past season's highlights included orchestras such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo (Dutoit), the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (Denève), the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover (Kochanovsky), the Brussels Philharmonic (Ono), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Peltokovsky), the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester (Valčuha), the Philharmonia London (Rouvali), the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (Alsop) and recitals at the Teatro alla Scala, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Wiener Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Zurich Tonhalle, Oxford Piano Festival, Piano à Lyon, among many others.
Highlights of the 2025/26 season include collaborations with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Rhorer), the Orchestre National de Lille for the Ravel anniversary (Weilerstein), the Oslo Philharmonic (Stutzmann), the Bern Sinfonieorchester (Petrenko), the Basque National Orchestra (Valčuha), the Berlin DSO (Denève), and the NDR ElbPhilharmonie Hamburg (Kochanovsky). The season also features tours around the world, including with La Filarmonica della Scala (Chung) in Korea, with the Lucerne Symphony (Sanderling) in Italy and a recital tour in China and Italy.
Among recital and festival appearances are engagements at the Tsinandali Festival (Noseda), the Esprit du Piano in Bordeaux, the Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Wigmore Hall, and the Verbier Festival.
Lugansky is Harmonia Mundi's exclusive artist. His latest album dedicated to Robert Schumann was released in February 2026; the recording “Richard Wagner” was Editor's Choice for May 2024, included in The Best Classical Albums of the Year by Gramophone and won the Premio Abbiati del Disco 2024 for solo repertoire. His album “Rachmaninov: Études-Tableaux; 3 Pièces”, was awarded with Choc de l'Année 2023 (Classica) and Gramophone Editor's Choice (March 2023). His “Rachmaninov: 24 Preludes” (2018) received rave reviews, while “César Franck, Préludes, Fugues & Chorals” CD (2020) won the Diapason d'Or.
Among the other awards for his many previous recordings: Diapason d’Or (Rachmaninov's Piano Sonatas) and Gramophone Editor’s Choice (Grieg and Prokofiev with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin).
Sergei Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto No. 2, in C minor, op. 18
— Intermission 20 min —
Richard Strauss
Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30
Passionate and intense musician, Nikolai Lugansky returns to Gulbenkian Música to perform the challenging Rachmaninov Concerto No. 2. In the second part, in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Richard Strauss relates to the idea of the “superman”, developed by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, as the culmination of human evolution. The majesty of Strauss’ musical creation, materialised in a symphonic poem, would be popularised by Stanley Kubrick’s cinema when he chose the music to accompany the opening of his masterpiece 2001: Space Odyssey.
Sponsor Gulbenkian Music
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