Music Director Laureate Edo de Waart invites piano legend Ronald Brautigam to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, widely considered to be of Mozart’s greatest masterpieces in the concerto genre. Variations plays upon a theme which Brahms believed — erroneously, it turns out — to have been written by Haydn. (The Variations … Continued

Grammy Award®-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich, an artist of “scarcely believable commitment” (New York Times), performs Britten’s Violin Concerto, a beautiful and conflicted work penned as WWII was beginning — and as Britten was first falling in love. Shostakovich’s charged ballet Age of Gold deals with themes of injustice and corruption and ends in the overthrow … Continued

“Aeriality refers to the state of gliding through the air with nothing or little to hold on to – as if flying – and the music both portrays the feeling of absolute freedom,” says composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir of her spellbinding work which opens these concerts. The program continues with one of the most legendary and … Continued

Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, one of his famed London symphonies, earned its nickname “Miracle” when a chandelier fell during its premiere and — miracle! — killed no one. This program also includes Prokofiev’s playful Classical Symphony, composed on an idyllic farm against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution; Schoenberg’s moody “Accompaniment to a Film Scene;” … Continued

The MSO continues its celebration of the 1930s — the decade in which Warner Grand Theater was built — and welcomes Timothy McAllister, a musician of “evocative and bravura alto sax playing” (Classical Review), to perform Ibert’s lively and lyrical Concertino da camera. Guest conductor Thomas Wilkins leads Hanson’s “Romantic” Symphony; this symphony’s fingerprints can … Continued

Welcome back to experiencing music together! The 2021.22 season begins with energetic and joyful music, including the upbeat jazz of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, the hopeful message of Ellington’s New World A Comin’, the sheer drama of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, and James B. Wilson’s poetic exploration of a flower blossoming against all odds. This can’t-miss … Continued

American composers are on display, including African American trailblazer William Grant Still and Pulitzer Prize-winning Samuel Barber. Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody, often called “Rhapsody in Rivets” for its industrial New York noise, began as a film score and is rife with urban frenzy. Aaron Diehl, a pianist of “individual talent so huge that one day he … Continued

“[Pianist Martin] Helmchen has a noble bearing and a noble sound, shaping lines as elegant and clean as a Greek temple’s,” says The New York Times. Helmchen performs Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, in which Beethoven pays artistic homage to Mozart’s piano music while maintaining his own vibrant spirit. Bruckner’s Seventh, whose music began as a … Continued

A visit to the countryside and a pleasant, babbling brook. A “merry gathering” of friends and neighbors. A sudden downpour and, finally, feelings of “thanks to the Deity.” This is the path Beethoven charts through his Sixth Symphony, titled “Pastoral” after its idyllic country setting; listen for birdsong, thunder, and the call of the shepherds. … Continued

In The Dharma at Big Sur, composer John Adams invokes the majesty of his adopted Pacific Coast and the way “the current pounds and smashes… in a slow, lazy rhythm of terrifying power.” He wrote his Dharma specifically for “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin” (BBC Radio), Tracy Silverman, who performs here against … Continued