2013–14 Season: Kenny Grant Recommends

"For me, the Bartók, Brahms, and Higdon concert is one that I'm really excited about.

"Jonathan Biss is an amazing artist and we have not had the Brahms First Piano Concerto in some time. I find the orchestrations of these concertos beyond the scope of the symphonies. Brahms being a pianist really pours his heart and soul into each of his two piano concertos.

"Jennifor Higdon's compositions I find very well put together and extremely musical in scope. Christopher Seaman brought her Blue Cathedral to the orchestra while he was the music director.

"The Bartók Concerto for Orchestra is one of the finest works for orchestra. The RPO has done it many times and it is always welcomed back by the orchestra. It has beautiful solo passages for all the instruments and wonderfully contrasting movements."

--Kenny Grant, Principal Clarinet

Brahms and Bartók
Oct. 17 and 19; Bernhard Gueller, guest conductor; Jonathan Biss, piano

Program:
JENNIFER HIGDON  City Scape: Skyline
BRAHMS  Piano Concerto No. 1
BARTÓK  Concerto for Orchestra

Watch a conversation with Jonathan Biss on PBS's News Hour:

Béla Bartók

"The title of [Concerto for Orchestra] is explained by its tendency to treat the single orchestral instruments in a concertant or soloistic manner. The 'virtuoso' treatment appears, for instance, in the fugato sections of the development of the first movement (brass instruments) ... and especially in the second movement, in which pairs of instruments consecutively appear with brilliant passages." --Béla Bartók

"[Concerto for Orchestra] makes tremendous demands on the players' dexterity. Also, the atmosphere sometimes changes very drastically and very unexpectedly. That is what makes it interesting."
--Pierre Boulez

Listen to this NPR clip for more on Concerto for Orchestra, including an excerpt performed by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony:

2013–14 Season: Peter Kurau & Geoffrey Sanford Recommend

"I'm looking forward to the return next season of Maestro Campestrini and Maestro Rachleff, both of whom provided wonderful, memorable concerts in recent seasons with the RPO."

--Peter Kurau, Principal Horn

"I'm looking forward to working with Larry Rachleff again.  I played for him during my Master's at Rice University and learned an incredible amount from him."

--Geoffrey Sanford, Oboe

“There is nothing like being present at a live classical music concert … Going to hear classical music is a window into one’s own feelings. These composers lived in the depths of the human condition … Classical music asks us, demands us, and brings us down into the richness of who we really are.”

--Larry Rachleff

Larry Rachleff is Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic; he joins the RPO Oct. 24 and 26 for music by Barber, Copland, Piazzolla, and de Falla. Watch the video below for Rachleff's views on a conductor's role, why classical music is better live, and more:

"Music always has to say something to me, it has to speak to me as a human being. Only afterwards I will analyze other aspects of it."

--Christoph Campestrini

Austrian conductor Christoph Campestrini has conducted more than 100 orchestras on 5 different continents, and is also in demand as an opera conductor. Campestrini studied music at Juilliard and Yale, and also studied philosophy at Columbia University. He joins the RPO Nov. 7 and 9 for Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, plus music by Mozart and Stravinsky.

2013–14 Season: Stephen Laifer Recommends

"I'm definitely looking forward to Beethoven's 9th Symphony in January.

As the RPO's 4th Horn, I don't get the chance to play very many solos--but in the 3rd movement of his 9th symphony, Beethoven wrote a solo for the 4th Horn player in his orchestra that is an entire page long. It's one of the most challenging and rewarding pieces in the repertoire."

--Stephen Laifer, Fourth Horn

Beethoven's Ninth
Jan. 16, 18, and 19; Hugh Wolff, guest conductor; Rochester Oratorio Society, Eric Townell, director

Program:
LILI BOULANGER  Psalm 130
BEETHOVEN  Symphony No. 9, “Choral”

Listen to the horn solo from the third movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and hear it performed by the RPO's Stephen Laifer in January, 2014.

2013–14 Season: Rebecca Gilbert Recommends

"Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite: lusciously sensual music that will take your imagination to a warm, exotic fantasy world far away from our cold Rochester winter! Oh yeah...those two pieces have fabulous flute solos!"

--Rebecca Gilbert, Principal Flute

An Evening in Paris
Jan. 30 and Feb. 1; Fabien Gabel, guest conductor; Philippe Quint, violin

Program:
DEBUSSY  Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun  
SAINT-SAËNS  Violin Concerto No. 3      
RAVEL  Une barque sur l’océan (A Boat on the Ocean)
RAVEL  Tzigane
STRAVINSKY  Firebird Suite (1919)

Watch an analysis of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, hosted by Leonard Bernstein. 




Watch an excerpt from the Firebird Suite performed by Michael Tilson Thomas and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra: