Sit back and enjoy the exhilarating emotional journey and melodic brilliance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth. Thomas Adès’ new concerto – described as a successor to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by The Boston Globe – will be delectable in the hands of his longtime friend Kirill Gerstein. Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnyt? opens the program with her blazing evocation of the power of fire.
Program
Raminta Šerkšnyt?: Fires
Thomas Adès: Piano Concerto
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Artists
Carlos Kalmar, conductor
Kirill Gerstein, piano
Oregon Symphony
This one hurts! First of all, it’s been quite a long time since I’ve played Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony on a subscription concert (we did a big chunk of it on one of our [classical composer] vs. [non-classical composer/artist] a while ago1, but I really do have a soft spot in my heart for this piece. And with our phenomenal new principal horn Jeff Garza, it would be a magical slow movement horn solo for sure. There would have been a work by a female composer – I’m not at all familiar with her output, I’m going to have to explore that – and that’s a really good thing, too. To top it all off, a new piano concerto by Thomas Adés, which would have been fiendishly difficult for all involved (as I remember his violin concerto Concentric Paths to be!), played by the inimitable Kirill Gernstein. Yep, this would have been an enjoyable week. Damn pandemic!
1My favorite concert note ever: Note: Neither Tchaikovsky nor Drake will perform on this concert. The performance will include lyrics with explicit language.