A visit to the countryside and a pleasant, babbling brook. A “merry gathering” of friends and neighbors. A sudden downpour and, finally, feelings of “thanks to the Deity.” This is the path Beethoven charts through his Sixth Symphony, titled “Pastoral” after its idyllic country setting; listen for birdsong, thunder, and the call of the shepherds. Music Director Laureate Edo de Waart returns to conduct this icon. In the first half, MSO Principal Cello Susan Babini performs Elgar’s poignant Cello Concerto.
American composers are on display, including African American trailblazer William Grant Still and Pulitzer Prize-winning Samuel Barber. Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody, often called “Rhapsody in Rivets” for its industrial New York noise, began as a film score and is rife with urban frenzy. Aaron Diehl...
Grammy Award®-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich, an artist of “scarcely believable commitment” (New York Times), performs Britten’s Violin Concerto, a beautiful and conflicted work penned as WWII was beginning — and as Britten was first falling in love. Shostakovich’s charged ballet Age of Gold...
Violinist Karen Gomyo, “…a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity” (Chicago Tribune), joins the MSO to perform Shostakovich’s expressive — at times nearly demonic — First Violin Concerto. William Eddins returns to lead this vivid program, which balances Shos...
