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
"My best work": Tchaikovsky's Second
Welsh composer Grace Williams (1906-1977) composed her exquisite and powerful Fairest of Stars, a setting of texts from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, in 1973; this final work by Williams to feature solo voice is presented in its U. S. premiere by soprano Stacey Mastrian, whose operatic and recital performances have garnered critical acclaim for “effortless mastery” and “showstopping heights”. Ms. Mastrian and the orchestra will also present Sibelius’ little-known symphonic poem with voice, Luonnotar. The Philharmonic concludes its 2023-24 season in grand fashion with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2, the Ukrainian, a work in which the composer unreservedly expresses his love for the Ukrainian people and their folk music. The program opens, appropriately enough, with music by Tchaikovsky’s favorite composer, the overture to Don Giovanni by Mozart.