4 / 5 stars Royal Festival Hall, London  Rachmaninov got the
inspiration for his 1909 tone poem The Isle of the Dead from a
print of Arnold Böcklin's painting of the same name. But where
Böcklin's painting is a blanched depiction of the mystery of
death, Rachmaninov's work plunges fatalistically forward into
the darkness in an increasingly storm-tossed barcarolle, before
collapsing into the composer's recurrent preoccupation with the
Dies Irae chant. For a conductor, the challenge is to shape this
masterly piece so that the return of the plunging rhythm at the
end feels inexorable rather than anticlimactic. Jukka-Pekka
Saraste achieved exactly that.  Rachmaninov's second piano
concerto starts in the same relentless minor-key mood. But at
heart this famous work is a celebration of the composer's own
dazzling pianism, and above all his matchless ability to combine
keyboard weight and lightness at often hair-raising speed.
Nikolai Lugansky was equal to the challenge in every way.
Lugansky's ability to articulate