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THE SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA SYMPHONY CELEBRATES RACHMANINOFF’S 150TH BIRTHDAY WITH RACH 3 AND LISZ
Indulge in the rich sounds of the music of Franz Liszt and Serge Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto Saturday, April 1st, 7:30 p.m. at Dock Mennonite Academy’s Souderton campus (the Early Childhood to Grade 8 campus) with the Southeastern
Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra!
The music of Franz Liszt takes on the journey of life, love, and destiny in his lush Les Préludes before we indulge in his lighthearted and famous Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. World-renowned Pianist Eric Zuber makes his SPSO debut performing
Rachmaninoff’s breathtakingly beautiful Third Piano Concerto.
Very few performing artists have achieved the fame that pianist Franz Liszt did. Even by today’s standards of popularity, Franz Liszt would rival the likes of The Beatles or Elvis Presley. For more than two decades Franz Liszt toured as a concert pianist, playing over 1,000 recitals. Fans would try to get close to Liszt, so much so that Liszt eventually bought a dog and passed off clips of the dog’s hair as his own to appease those who simply wanted to touch the composer. As one of the most provocative and brilliant figures in all of music, Liszt seemed to believe that his compositions should be as colorful and sensational as his
own life. Capturing poems, paintings, legends, or historical events through his music was a natural fit for Liszt. Free from the more formal structure of a symphony, these “symphonic poems” became one of Liszt’s hallmarks of his creativity outside of his works for the piano.
Les Préludes, the most popular of Liszt’s 13 dramatic symphonic poems, conjures up an adventure that is reflective and volatile, enchanted and heroic, reckless and bombastic – and is a symphonic masterpiece. The flash and awe of Liszt’s piano
music is so captivating that audiences love it equally when these show pieces were arranged for orchestra. Six of Liszt’s 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies were orchestrated, and No. 2 by far remains one of the most loved and most performed. Although Liszt
was Hungarian, he never spoke the language as his family assimilated as Germans. He was, however, influenced by the gypsy music of his homeland. As one of the great showmen of his time, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 uses traditional gypsy
themes from the Hungarian dances and remains and have been used by the Marx Brothers and mostly recognized in animated cartoons from Walt Disney and the Warner Brothers to Walter Lantz and Hanna-Barbera. The playfulness and virtuosity make for one of the more unforgettable moments in all of Liszt’s music.
April 1st marks Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday, and SPSO features the composer’s celebrated Piano Concerto No. 3 with internationally-acclaimed Pianist Eric Zuber. Mr. Zuber replaces originally scheduled soloist Claire Huangci who needed to
pull out for some minor hand surgery. Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, along with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, has secured a firm place as the most virtuosic work for piano, placing enormous demands on the soloist and orchestra. The appeal of the “Rach 3” goes beyond mere technique, although that in it of itself is awesome. The lush themes of each of the three movements are subtly interwoven.
Hailed as an “irresistibly fluid” and “illuminating” pianist by The New York Times and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Eric Zuber has established himself as one of the leading American pianists of his generation. His recent debut album, The Young Chopin, featuring a collaboration with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, has received critical acclaim, with Gramophone magazine praising his “comprehensive technical command... and bravura approach which is never garish or manipulative with careful voicing and subtle gradations of color.”
During a period of just a few years, Mr. Zuber was a recipient of major prizes from twelve of the world’s most prestigious international piano competitions including Arthur Rubinstein, Cleveland, Seoul, Sydney, Dublin, Hastings, Honens, and the Piano-eCompetition, and was named a Laureate of the American Pianist Association Classical Fellowship Awards Eric Zuber has made solo appearances at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Severance Hall and for the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City. After making his orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, he has gone on to perform with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad including Cleveland, Israel, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Phoenix, Sydney, RTE National, and the Royal Philharmonic.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/1603989-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/1603989-2
