Seattle Symphony Orchestra will perform Shostakovich’s masterpiece, Symphony No. 11, “The Year 1905,” on Thursday, November 15, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, November 17, at 8 p.m. Acclaimed pianist Arnaldo Cohen will join Gerard Schwarz and the Orchestra for performances of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The program will also include Benjamin Britten’s Russian Funeral.
After winning First Prize at the 1972 Busoni International Piano Competition, Brazilian-born pianist Arnaldo Cohen scored a triumph in a solo recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He is regularly invited to appear as soloist with major orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch, and the Cleveland Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has performed with The Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, and Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome; the Amadeus Trio and the Chillingirian, Lindsay, Orlando and Vanbrugh quartets.
Cohen began his musical studies at age five; graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro with an honors degree in both piano and violin. He is the recipient of a fellowship awarded by the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and, until recently, held a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. After living in London for 23 years, Cohen relocated to the U.S. and now holds a tenured piano professorship at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103, “The Year 1905," is a programmatic symphony, one that attempts to convey in music a particular narrative—in this case, the infamous 1905 “Palace Massacre” in St. Petersburg. Shostakovich employs vivid figuration to suggest that event, as well as a number of Russian song melodies.
Franz Liszt was one of the great pianists of the 19th century, and his Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major entails plenty of keyboard virtuosity. Also a highly innovative composer, Liszt ventures an unusual concerto design, casting the work in a single multifaceted movement bound together by ingenious thematic recurrences.
Benjamin Britten’s Russian Funeral is a youthful work for brass and percussion by the foremost English composer of the 20th century. In it, Britten juxtaposes a funeral dirge with music of more martial character, describing the piece’s contrasting elements as “Death and War.” -- www.seattlesymphony.org
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
