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Classical Season Closes with Star of “From the Top”

April 26, 2010
  • Who: Christopher O'Riley with the Austin Symphony Orchestra
  • When: May 14 & 15, 2010 - 8:00 p.m.
  • Where: Michael & Susan Dell Hall, Long Center for the Performing Arts
  • Cost: $19 - $48
  • Contact: Don Hill, Director of Public Relations - (512) 476-6064

The Austin Symphony closes its 99th classical concert season on May 9 & 10 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in an evening of Mahler & Mozart, featuring celebrated pianist Christopher O’Riley. These concerts are proudly sponsored by Bank of America.

PROGRAM

Mahler – “Blumine”
Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major, K. 595
Mahler – Symphony No. 1 in D Major

Maestro Peter Bay opens the evening with Gustav Mahler’s “Blumine.” With this concert, the ASO celebrates the sesquicentennial of Mahler’s birth. Mahler completed nine symphonies in his lifetime, leaving a tenth unfinished. His First Symphony, sometimes known as “Titan,” includes a remarkable ironic funeral march that transforms a nursery tune. Since the Symphony No. 1 will be performed on the second half of this concert, Maestro Bay has also programmed “Blumine” on the first half. “Blumine” was formerly a movement of Symphony No. 1, situated between the first and second movements as it now stands. Originally written as incidental music for a Joseph Scheffel play, the addition of this movement appears to have been an afterthought, and Mahler discarded it after its third performance in Weimar because he felt it did not fit with the rest of the movements.

After a brief pause, the ASO welcomes pianist Christopher O’Riley to center stage. From his groundbreaking transcriptions of music by Radiohead to his powerful interpretations of repertoire classic and contemporary, O’Riley has redefined the possibilities of classical music. He has taken his unique vision to both traditional classical music venues and symphonic settings, as well as to entirely new audiences on the radio, at universities and even night clubs. As host of the most popular classical music radio show on the air today, National Public Radio’s From the Top, Mr. O’Riley works and performs with the next generation of brilliant young musicians, demonstrating to audiences, with humor and a lack of pretense, that these young artists are as characterful and diverse in their personal lives as they are in their music-making. Mr. O’Riley will perform the Piano Concerto No. 27 of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This was Mozart’s last completed piano concerto, finished in January of 1791.

Tickets for Christopher O’Riley 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).