Robertson


Currie

Currie x 3
Friday, October 3, 2008 at 10:30am

David Robertson, conductor
Colin Currie, percussion

MOZART The Abduction from the Seraglio Overture
STEVEN MACKEY Time Release
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

Colin Currie nimbly crossed back and forth across the stage playing a battery of percussion in spring 2006, and audiences felt the sonic power reverberating long after. This season Currie plays a different percussion concerto for each concert. Mozart and Beethoven, classical purveyors of modern rhythms, complete the adventure.

Lortie

Friday, December 5, 2008 at 10:30am
Presented by Thompson Coburn LLP

Michael Christie, conductor
Louis Lortie, piano

BARBER Essay No. 1
CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 1
TCHAIKOVSKY Suite No. 3

Barber’s Essay lights a bright American candle. Chopin’s piano concertos are all of fire, a dramatic combustion between orchestra and soloist, a battle as riveting as a volatile marriage. Tchaikovsky’s suites are just as incandescent. Being Russian, he knows the darkest nights require heat and light. He brings them.

Ax

Friday, January 30, 2009 at 10:30am
Presented by American Airlines

David Robertson, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano

HAYDN Symphony No. 92, “Oxford”
R. STRAUSS Burleske
GEORGE BENJAMIN Dance Figures
SZYMANOWSKI Symphony No. 4 (Symphonie concertante)

One of the most exciting virtuosic displays of last season was Christian Tetzlaff’s sensational performance of Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto. Let Szymanowski become a household name to you when the phenomenal Emanuel Ax plays a late work of the Polish composer to complete a program of raucous sophistication.

Ohlsson

Friday, February 27, 2009 at 10:30am

Jun Märkl, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Todd Wilson, organ

LISZT Les Préludes
DVORÁK Piano Concerto
SAINT-SAËNS Symphony No. 3, “Organ”

“Chiaroscuro” means the contrasts between lights and darks in a picture or painting. It’s an effective word to describe this concert: Liszt’s tone poem of life and death; Dvorák’s concerto, with an interplay between soloist and orchestra like dappled light; and Saint-Saëns’ symphony of dazzling variations.

Sparks

Friday, March 13, 2009 at 10:30am

Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Mark Sparks, flute

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
NIELSEN Flute Concerto
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”

Beethoven treasured the sounds of the woods, even when those sounds were more remembered than heard. His “Pastoral” Symphony contains a storm (of nature and of mind) that inspired many cinematic soundtracks to come. In Vaughan Williams and Nielsen you hear two composers who listened as deeply to nature, and were as inspired.

Hamelin

Friday, May 1, 2009 at 10:30am

Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor
Marc-André Hamelin, piano

RAVEL Le Tombeau de Couperin
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 2
DEBUSSY/RAVEL Sarabande
FRANCK Symphony in D minor

An artist needs to announce “Here I am!” sometimes. Ravel, paying homage to another, at the same time brilliantly proclaims himself. Franck, late in his life, takes on the symphony, which he does exuberantly. Saint-Saëns wrote this mercurial concerto for himself, and for audiences to exclaim, “Wow!”