Yuja Wang Performs Ravel's Virtuosic Piano Concerto
For over two decades, composer and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has greatly influenced American classical music's westward expansion as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony. The gifted innovator continues his trailblazing tenure with a program of Castiglioni's Inverno in-ver, Copland's Appalachian Spring and Ravel's Piano Concerto in D Major for Left Hand, the latter of which features the dazzling, fleet fingerwork of Chinese piano virtuoso Yuja Wang.
The evening begins with Inverno in-ver, a video-accompanied piece by Italian avant-garde composer Niccolo Castiglioni, before Wang joins the proceedings for the influenced rhythms and harmonies of Ravel's Piano Concerto for Left Hand. Composed for Paul Wittgenstein, the brother of the famous photographer after he lost his right arm in WWII, the piece consists of a technically demanding single movement that moves from sombre depths to an explosive orchestral statement of triumph over adversity. Copland's Pulitzer Prize-winning ballet suite Appalachian Spring closes the diverse program.
