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Stay Tuned: Three More Blockbuster ESO Concerts

Stay Tuned: Three More Blockbuster ESO Concerts

March opens with another blockbuster Evanston Symphony Orchestra concert featuring Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Frederick Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor featuring pianist Sean Chen, third-prize winner in the 2013 Cliburn Competition. There is still plenty more in store, however, during this 71st season of the ESO.

Any cinema lovers out there? Come back to Pick-Staiger on May 7 to hear three significant pieces of music from motion pictures. These include Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor featuring pianist Jeffrey Biegel. This monumental concerto played into the plotline of the 1996 movie, Shine. Starring Jeffrey Rush, the movie tells the story of David Helfgott, who struggled with the mental and pianist challenges posed by this piece. Also on the program is Sergei Prokofiev’s concert suite from the 1934 score of the Soviet film Lt. Kije. The program ends with perhaps the best known piece of movie music — the Star Wars Symphonic Suite by composer John Williams.

Sing it out. That could be the theme of the ESO’s last concert of the year. The June 11 concert features Gustav Mahler’s powerful Symphony No. 2 in C Minor “Resurrection,” which includes vocal soloists; a full chorus; and organ, bells and extra orchestra players, both on-stage and off-stage, creating a riveting musical effect. The North Shore Choral Society joins the ESO for the choral finale of the “Resurrection” and also will sing a brief motet from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s final months.