Powerhouse performances make for a breathtaking evening when Pacific Symphony, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, performs Beethoven’s dramatic “Eroica” Symphony on a program that includes another musical marvel, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, performed by Chinese-American sensation Conrad Tao.
The calm, controlled opening of Prokofiev’s Concerto disarms the audience for the tumult that’s to come—scales swoop through the orchestra and the keyboard explodes as Tao performs his magic. Now 21, the pianist has been called “the most exciting prodigy to ever come my way” by a music critic at Musical America, while The New York Times says he plays with “fiery panache” and New York Magazine notes Tao’s “aggressive charm and flashes of genuine wisdom.”
On the second half of the concert, Beethoven’s popular third symphony—filled with drama, death, resistance, strife and ultimate rebirth—provides a thrilling conclusion to the evening. If one symphony can be called a turning point in the way Beethoven and the world viewed the form, it is the “Eroica.”
Where Beethoven’s first two symphonies are graceful and decorously Classical, with the influence of Haydn and Mozart clearly heard, the Symphony No. 3 is a bold musical utterance that is longer in duration and bolder in its ideas than were its predecessors—literally a heroic symphony.
The concert takes place Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 3-5, 2015 at 8 p.m. in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Tickets range from $25-$110. A preview talk begins at 7 p.m. For more information or to purchase tickets, please call (714) 755-5799 or visit www.PacificSymphony.org.
Jayce Keane
Director of Public Relations
