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Versatile pianist, ASO Perform Dvorak, Rachmaninoff

December 9, 2008
  • Who: Garrick Ohlsson with the Austin Symphony Orchestra
  • When: January 9 & 10, 2009
  • 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

For Immediate Release:

Concert Sponsors: Freescale Semiconductor and Raymond James & Associates
Season Sponsors: JPMorgan Chase & Four Seasons Residences Austin
Media Sponsors: Time Warner Cable/News 8 Austin, Austin American Statesman and Majic 95.5 FM

“Garrick Ohlsson is the most versatile of America’s pianists.” -Boston Globe

Austin audiences will continue to cheer the Austin Symphony’s inaugural season in the new Long Center when Maestro Peter Bay and the ASO welcome world-renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson on January 9th & 10th in evenings featuring music by three of Russia’s greatest composers: Mussorgsky, Dvořák and Rachmaninoff. Freescale Semiconductor and Raymond James & Associates proudly sponsor this concert.

Program

Mussorgsky – “Dawn on the Moskva River” from Khovantchina
Dvořák – Piano Concerto in G Minor, Op. 33
Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27

Maestro Bay opens the evening with “Dawn on the Moskva River” from Modest Mussorgsky’s second opera, Khovantchina. Unfinished at his death, Khovantchina was completed and orchestrated by loyal friend Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. A later version by Shostakovich restored more of the original text. Khovantchina concentrates on the trouble in Russian history when the powerful and resistant palace guard, the Streltzy, came into open conflict with the government of child Czar Peter, the future Peter the Great. The introduction to the opera, “Dawn” is a symphonic poem in miniature depicting the awakening of the city. The rising sun is reflected in the high domes of the churches in the Kremlin, bells ring for morning services. Moscow is now awake.

Maestro Bay then welcomes pianist Garrick Ohlsson to center stage. Since his triumphant win at the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although he has long been regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Mr. Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire, which ranges over the entire piano literature. He performs Antonin Dvořák’s Piano Concerto in G Minor with the ASO for this concert. Considered to be the greatest of the Czech nationalist composers of the later 19th century, Dvořák continues to enjoy the widest international popularity.

After a brief intermission, Maestro Bay returns to conduct Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E Minor. Rachmaninoff’s lush Second Symphony qualifies as the archetypal Romantic symphony, full of opulent melodies and plush orchestral textures.

Concertgoers can enjoy “Concert Conversations” with Bob Buckalew at 7:10 p.m. in the concert hall. These discussions provide an in-depth look at the composers and works being performed, including commentary on the social climate in which they were composed.

Tickets for Garrick Ohlsson 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).