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‘Rach 3’ Highlights February Classical Concert

February 4, 2010
  • Who: Barbara Nissman with the Austin Symphony Orchestra
  • When: February 26 & 27, 2010 - 8:00 p.m.
  • Where: Dell Hall, Long Center for the Performing Arts
  • Cost: $19-$48
  • Contact: Don Hill, Director of Public Relations - (512) 476-6064 x 213

For Immediate Release

Season Sponsor: JPMorgan Chase Foundation
Concert Sponsor: Four Seasons Residences Austin
Media Sponsors: Time Warner Cable/News 8 Austin, Austin American-Statesman and Majic 95.5 FM

The Austin Symphony will continue to celebrate its 99th season on February 26 & 27 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. These performances will feature pianist Barbara Nissman playing the Third Piano Concerto of Sergei Rachmaninoff. These concerts are proudly sponsored by Four Seasons Residences Austin.

Program

Rachmaninoff – Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14
Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47

Maestro Peter Bay opens the evening with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, from his 14 Songs, Op. 34, arranged for orchestra.

The ASO then welcomes pianist Barbara Nissman to the Austin stage. Described as “a pianist of a bygone era,” Barbara Nissman continues the grand bravura tradition of romantic pianism, making it relevant to our century. Her recordings of 20th-century composers are considered “definitive,” and her ongoing series of recordings for the Pierian label of 19th-century composers Liszt, Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Rachmaninoff have garnered critical praise. Ms. Nissman will be performing the technically demanding audience favorite, the “Rach 3,” Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor.

After a brief intermission, Maestro Bay returns to center stage to lead the ASO in a performance of the Fifth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich. Of Shostakovich’s 15 symphonies, the Fifth is among the most performed, along with the immediate post-war Ninth and the Tenth of 1953. Shostakovich belongs to the generation of Russian composers trained principally after the Communist Revolution of 1917. His Fifth Symphony brought partial rehabilitation from official condemnation, emanating apparently from Stalin himself. Posthumous information suggests that Shostakovich remained very critical of Stalinist dictates, particularly with regard to music and the arts. He occupies a significant position in the 20th-century, writing in a style that is sometimes spare in texture but always accessible, couched as it is in an extension of traditional tonal musical language.

Tickets for Barbara Nissman 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).