Evanston Symphony Orchestra

George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F has retained its pre-eminent status as the most popular American piano concerto since its 1925 premiere, and is a specialty of virtuoso Jeffrey Biegel. Another American classic favorite, Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, had its 1931 premiere in Chicago, and the clip-clop rhythm of its “On the Trail” movement was actually inspired by the sounds of pile drivers along Lake Shore Drive. George Walker’s lovely Lyric for Strings and Jonathan Newman’s short rock-inspired overture round out this all-American program.

Adam Neiman, a faculty member at Roosevelt University, headlines our Virtuoso Piano concert with one of the great Romantic concertos, that by Robert Schumann. This all-German Romantic program opens with one of Mendelssohn’s most exciting overtures and concludes with Brahms’ towering First Symphony, his tribute to the symphonies of Beethoven, in particular the C Minor Fifth Symphony.

Program

Go To Videos

The title of our second concert summarizes but does not encompass the diversity and richness of the “Spanish” and “Latin” works on this exciting and colorful program, which includes French and Russian versions of Spain, as well as music from Argentina by Ginastera and Piazzolla and a Mexican masterpiece by José Pablo Moncayo. The one work by a Spanish composer is the most popular of all guitar concertos and will be interpreted by the gifted Jason Blair Lewis, and the concert closes with Bernstein’s exciting dance of Puerto Ricans in New York.

The year of 1830 was one of revolts across Europe, and the world of music was also affected. The Symphonie fantastique of Hector Berlioz is among the most revolutionary orchestral advances in music history, particularly in its dazzling use of a very large orchestra. And after Frederick Chopin played the solo in the premiere of his First Piano Concerto in Warsaw, he left Poland forever, settling in Paris.