Monthly Archives: February 2025

♦ PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ♦ Lisiecki Performs Mozart Heinz Hall 03/07 7:30PM 03/09 2:30PM NORIKO KOIDE: Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain [PSO Premiere] MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 22 PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 5 Notes: Praised for his “pristine, lyrical and intelligent” playing (The New York Times), Jan Lisiecki returns to perform Mozart’s elegant and effervescent piano concerto. Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony is filled with grand, sweeping, lyrical music tinged with brooding introspection. When his Fifth premiered in the US, Prokofiev’s picture graced the cover of Time Magazine, and the magazine’s lengthy profile of him quoted Koussevitzky’s assessment: “[The Fifth Symphony is] the greatest…

♦ PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ♦ Shostakovich’s Final Symphony Heinz Hall 01/31 7:30PM 02/02 2:30PM SIBELIUS: Pohjola’s Daughter VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Oboe Concerto SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 15 Notes: Written in 1971 when Shostakovich’s health was declining, the final symphony by this profoundly private composer is a reflection on his life and career: intensely personal, enigmatic, and somewhat surreal, with inexplicable quotes from music by Rossini, Glinka and Wagner alongside references to his own music from his younger years. ♦ Dvorak’s New World Heinz Hall 02/14 7:30PM 02/15 7:30PM 02/16 2:30PM CARLOS SIMON: Four Black American Dances [PSO Premiere] SAINT-SAËNS: Violin Concerto No….