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ASO Ushers in Spring with Elegant Pianist and Schumann “Spring” Symphony

March 17, 2010
  • Who: Ingrid Fliter with the Austin Symphony
  • When: April 9 & 10, 2010, 8:00 p.m.
  • Where: Dell Hall, Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 W. Riverside Dr.
  • Cost: $19 - $48
  • Contact: Don Hill, Director of Public Relations - 476-6064 x 213

The Austin Symphony continues to celebrate its 99th season on April 9 & 10 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in an evening celebrating the bicentennials of two composers. These performances will feature pianist Ingrid Fliter playing Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and the ASO performing Robert Schumann’s “Spring” Symphony No. 1. These concerts are proudly sponsored by Frost Bank and Slack & Davis, LLP.

Program

Chopin/Elgar – Funeral March (from Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35)
Chopin/Stravinsky – Grande Valse Brillante, Op. 18
Chopin – Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21
Schumann – Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op. 38 “Spring”

Maestro Peter Bay opens the evening with two pieces by Frederic Chopin, reworked by other composers. The Funeral March is an orchestration by Sir Edward Elgar of a tune found in Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2. That is followed by an Igor Stravinsky orchestration of Chopin’s Grande Valse Brillante, Op. 18.

After a short pause, the Austin Symphony welcomes pianist Ingrid Fliter to center stage for a performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Ms. Fliter has been proclaimed as a remarkable talent. The Argentine native was named the recipient of the 2006 Gilmore Artist Award. Only the fifth pianist to have been so honored, the Gilmore Artist Award is made to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses broad and profound musicianship and charisma and who desires and can sustain a career as a major international concert artist. Ingrid Fliter made her American orchestra debut with the Atlanta Symphony in January 2006, just days after the announcement of her Gilmore Award. Since then she has made debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco, St. Louis, Toronto, Detroit, Dallas, Vancouver and Indianapolis symphonies, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra among others. Ms. Fliter will perform one of Frederic Chopin’s most beloved pieces, the Second Piano Concerto in F minor.

Following intermission, the ASO pays tribute to the start of Spring with the “Spring” Symphony No. 1 of Robert Schumann. Schumann’s First Symphony reveals a number of remarkable parallels with Schubert’s “Great” C Major Symphony, which he felt embodied the ideal Romantic symphony in its entirely new type of instrumentation. Drafted in only four days in January of 1841, the symphony’s nickname owes to the sense of elation which had taken possession of the composer in anticipation of the coming spring. “I wrote the symphony at the end of the winter of 1841; if I may say so, it was with that springtime élan that draws man into its sway, overwhelming him anew with each passing year to the very end of his life.”

Tickets for Ingrid Fliter with the Austin Symphony range from $19 to $48. Student rush tickets are also available 20 minutes prior to performance for $5 cash and current student ID. Charge tickets online at http://www.austinsymphony.org where you will find seating maps, price options and a wealth of concert information. Tickets are also available at the Austin Symphony Box Office, 11th and Red River or call 476-6064 or 1-888-4-MAESTRO (toll-free).