FINAL CONCERT OF THE SEASON! PACIFIC SYMPHONY WELCOMES BACK AN OLD FRIEND AND ONE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC’S MOST REVERED PIANISTS—ANDRÉ WATTS—FOR GRIEG’S EXQUISITE PIANO CONCERTO
Evening includes Dvorák’s Carnival Overture and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5
—He’s the musician Pacific Symphony calls when they want a show-stopping, end-of-the-season performance: André Watts. One of the world’s most celebrated and beloved piano superstars for more than 50 years, Watts joins the Symphony for his good friend Music Director Carl St.Clair’s 20th anniversary season finale—on Thursday-Saturday, June 10-12, at 8 p.m., in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.
Last seen by Symphony patrons when he performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (at the end of the 2007-08 season), the piano powerhouse returns to perform Grieg’s sweepingly dramatic Piano Concerto. The program also includes Dvorák’s Carnival Overture and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 (which was the last work that St.Clair conducted during his first season as music director). Tickets are $25-$105; for more information or to purchase tickets, call (714) 755-5799 or visit www.pacificsymphony.org.
“The piano became, in his hands, not just a tool to waft beautiful melodies, but an instrument that could growl and sting, rush and hover, feint and jab, accompany as well as solo,” said Timothy Mangan, The Orange County Register’s classical music critic, following Watts’ last appearance with the Symphony. “There wasn’t an uninflected bar in his entire performance, and that kept it interesting and involving from first to last. The place erupted after the final ‘whomp.’”
The evening’s program begins on a festive note with Dvorák’s Carnival Overture, which was the second of a group of three works the composer collectively titled “Nature, Life, and Love.” Containing an operatic spirit—with Carmenesque flashes—the work has a prevailing
ebullience and stomping, folk dance-like energy. The concert concludes with a piece that was written more than 14 years after Prokofiev’s Fourth Symphony to convey the emotional tensions of wartime Russia. The composer considered his Fifth Symphony to be his best work, calling it music “glorifying the human spirit.” Grieg’s Piano Concerto completes the evening—full of lively Norwegian folk-dance rhythms, it’s the perfect piece to show off Watts’ formidible talents. The concerto was written when the composer was only 25 and it is considered by many to be the most complete musical embodiment of Norwegian national Romanticism.
“I am very happy to be able to congratulate Carl on his wonderful anniversary. It is always a pleasure to celebrate a milestone for a colleague; it is a special joy when that colleague is an exceptional musician, and it is a real blessing when one can call that colleague a true friend,” says Watts. The pianist, who has performed with Pacific Symphony perhaps more than any other guest artist is called “one of America’s greatest interpreters of repertoire for the piano,” by St.Clair, who also regards the pianist as a “dear friend and profound musician.”
Watts burst upon the music world at the age of 16 when Leonard Bernstein chose him to make his debut with the New York Philharmonic in their Young People’s Concerts, broadcast nationwide on CBS-TV. It was only two weeks later that Bernstein asked him to substitute for Glenn Gould in performances with the New York Philharmonic, thus launching his career in storybook fashion. More than four decades later, Watts remains a classical superstar. His performances each year with the world’s great orchestras, his sold-out recitals and appearances at international festivals bring him to every corner of the globe. A much-honored artist who has played before royalty in Europe and heads of government in nations all over the world, Watts was selected to receive the Avery Fisher Prize in 1988.
In June 2006, Watts was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. He has had a long and frequent association with television, having appeared on numerous programs produced by PBS, the BBC and the Arts and Entertainment Network, performing with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center among others. His 1976 New York recital, aired
on the PBS program “Live From Lincoln Center,” was the first full-length recital ever broadcast on television. His performance at the 38th Casals Festival in Puerto Rico was broadcast nationwide, as well as throughout Europe and Asia, and was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Orchestra.”
Pacific Symphony’s Classical Series performances are made possible by the Hal and Jeanette Segerstrom Family Foundation, with additional support from the Symphony’s official airline, American Airlines; official hotel, The Westin South Coast Plaza; official classical music station, KUSC; and official television station, KOCE-TV.
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