The Asheville Symphony Orchestra continues its 52nd season on Saturday, November 17 at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in downtown Asheville. The concert will consist of works by Bizet, Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven, conducted by music director Daniel Meyer, and featuring the renowned pianist Joyce Yang.
The evening will begin with the familiar L’Arlésienne Suite No. 1 by Georges Bizet. Known best as the composer of the opera Carmen, the composer wrote incidental music for a play by Alphonse Daudet called L’Arlésienne (The Woman from Arles) in 1872, when he was desperate for money. The play did not survive many performances, but the music, arranged as an orchestral suite, has been popular ever since. Meyer describes the score as “joyous… unforgettable melodies, and music of great color and vitality – a Parisian’s take on the spirit and stories of southern France.”
The concert will continue with Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff, who composed it in 1934 and performed the premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. The piece is based on the 24th Caprice from Niccoló Paganini’s Caprices for Violin Solo, Op. 1. Paganini’s virtuosic variations have also served as source material for such diverse composers as Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Schnittke and Lutoslawski. “This is a work that tests the mettle and musical depth of any great pianist,” according to Meyer.
Piano soloist Joyce Yang came to international attention in 2005 when she won the silver medal and two additional awards at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, despite being the youngest contestant. At the age of 26, she has established herself as one of the leading artists of her generation. In 2010 she received an Avery Fisher Career Grant – one of classical music’s most prestigious accolades.
The Los Angeles Times has referred to her “compelling virtuosity and sensitivity”, while the Chicago Tribune described her playing as “brilliant”, and the Washington Post commented on her “musical maturity”. Yang appears in the film In the Heart of Music, a documentary about the Cliburn Competition, and she is a frequent guest on American Public Media’s radio program Performance Today.
Her debut disc, distributed by harmonia mundi usa, contains live performances of works by Bach, Liszt, Scarlatti, and the Australian composer Carl Vine. A Steinway artist, she resides in New York City.
The second half of the concert will feature the beloved Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60 by Ludwig van Beethoven, written when the master was 36, in the same year as many of his other landmark works including the Fifth Symphony. “With its mysterious introduction, contemplative adagio, off-kilter scherzo, and frisky finale,” says Meyer, “the ‘Fourth’ marks a special place among Beethoven’s enormously creative symphonies.” Beethoven had started first on the stormy Fifth Symphony, but put it aside to work on the Fourth, which he finished in early 1807. The work was premiered in March of that year at a private all-Beethoven concert that also included the premieres of the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Coriolan Overture.
Tickets for the performance are available through the Symphony office or the U.S. Cellular Center Asheville box office, and range in price from $58 to $20. Subscriptions are also available on a “pick three” basis for $167 to $55. Significant discounts for students are available. For details call (828) 254-7046 or visit www.ashevillesymphony.org.