Photo: Getty
The Yucatán Symphony Orchestra returned to Mérida after two well-received performances in the most important festival in Latin America: the International Cervantes Festival.
On Saturday at the Juarez Theater in Guanajuato, the orchestra’s initial performance, under the baton of Juan Carlos Lomónaco, offered one of the most demanding and powerful scores of piano literature, Concerto for Piano No. 3 (1909) by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943). Russian pianist Alexei Volodin was rewarded with a standing ovation. In gratitude, the soloist performed an encore: Chopin’s Nocturne in C Sharp, which received another ovation.
The orchestra then traveled to León for a Sunday performance at the Teatro del Bicentenario. Volodin again rewarded the enthusiastic audience with a solo encore: Russian composer Sergei Prokófiev’s Ten Pieces for Piano, Op. 12 (1906-1913).
Volodin is considered one of the greatest present-day pianists and he has a busy season ahead. He travels to Istanbul, Turkey, for his next recital on Friday. Then he is off to Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain and his home country of Russia. In March, he is scheduled to perform Chopin in San Antonio, Texas.
