Saturday, March 10, 2012, 8 PM
Adams
- Lollapalooza
Sibelius
- Symphony No. 5
Rachmaninoff
- Piano Concerto No. 3
- Mariangela Vacatello, piano
What on earth is a Lollapalooza? Well, it’s something so big and exciting that it needs a word like lollapalooza just to describe it. In the case of John Adams, it’s a musical romp of an overture, where the winds whistle a happy tune while the brass thump out the signature “loll-a-pa-loo-za” rhythm. It’s bold, brash, and American through-and-through. We then enter the extraordinary symphonic world of Jean Sibelius, who treats musical gestures like tectonic plates, ever shifting, morphing, and crashing into each other. It creates a bracing effect, and by the final glowing chords of the horns, you will have been swept away. Not to be outdone, Rachmaninoff created a sensation with his Piano Concerto No. 3. Originally a vehicle for his own prodigious skill at the keyboard, this concerto has become a watershed work for pianists – if you can conquer Rach 3, you can conquer anything. Van Cliburn competition favorite Mariangela Vacatello joins us for this special evening of musical heights.
