Music of the Americas
In yet another unique and adventurous program, the Philharmonic performs works by composers from five different countries of the American continent. Mexico’s José Pablo Moncayo, one of his country’s most revered composers, is represented by his festive Sinfonietta. Canadian composer Jean Coulthard’s Prayer for Elizabeth, written to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, is a heartfelt meditation in the manner of Barber’s Adagio for Strings. From Brazil, we sample the evocative music of Camargo Guarnieri, as one of the Philharmonic’s dearest friends, the dynamic pianist Sophie Lippert, performs his Piano Concerto No. 1. Following intermission, we turn to the hauntingly beautiful Mediodía en en Llano (Afternoon on the Plain) by Venezuela’s Antonio Estévez. The concert ends on U. S. soil with the Concerto for Orchestra by Morton Gould, a work that deftly combines classical, popular, and jazz elements (including a rip-roaring boogie-woogie finale!).
MONCAYO | Sinfonietta
COULTHARD | A Prayer for Elizabeth
GUARNIERI | Concerto No. 1 for Piano & Orchestra
Soloist | Sophie Lippert, Piano
ESTÉVEZ | Mediodía en el Llano
GOULD | Concerto for Orchestra
June 3rd
2pm
Benaroya Hall
Tickets
Upcoming
"In such a night as this": Nocturnes
A nocturnal atmosphere hovers over this program bookended by two of the literature’s most famous pieces inspired by the magic and mystery of the nighttime hours: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Claude Debussy’s orchestral trilogy Nocturnes, the latter a collaboration with the acclaimed Seattle Girls Choir. The Philharmonic’s principal cellist Soohyun Juhn takes the solo spotlight in works by sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger, including Lili’s Nocturne. A handful of shorter Debussy works and Franz von Suppé’s ever-popular overture to the operetta Poet and Peasant round out this unique concert.
"The gentle fragrance of love": Mahler's Rückert-Lieder
From among three choices, the members of the Seattle Philharmonic voted to close our season with Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, in its most famous orchestration by Maurice Ravel. These resplendent symphonic canvases will share the bill with three short works by Nicole Buetti — one for strings, one for winds and brass, and one for the entire orchestra spotlighting the percussion. Soprano Stacey Mastrian makes a welcome return engagement to our stage in the most exquisite and intimate of Gustav Mahler’s song cycles, the achingly beautiful Rückert-Lieder.