Marin Alsop to Lead BSO, Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in AGE OF ANXIETY, 9/26-28

Music Director Marin Alsop leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Bernstein's Symphony No. 2, "Age of Anxiety" on Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore and Friday, September 27, 2013 and Saturday, September 28, 2013 at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Also on the program are Gershwin's Cuban Overture and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major and Daphnis and Chloe: Suite No. 2. Please see below for complete program details.

Among the leading interpreters of Leonard Bernstein's works, Marin Alsop has led the BSO in several critically acclaimed performances of the popular composer/conductor's music during her tenure. Reported The Washington Post of the BSO's 2012 performance of Bernstein's Symphony No. 3, "Kaddish," "Marin Alsop studied with Leonard Bernstein. This could be dismissed as a mere PR bullet point, a seal of approval, an item on the checklist of her distinctions. Or so at least you might think, until you hear her conduct Bernstein's music. ...[Alsop's] got Bernstein under her skin." The BSO's 2008 performance of Bernstein's large-scale Mass was no less riveting, prompting The New York Times to rave, "...how [Bernstein] would have loved seeing his 'Mass' touch so many people..." The next installment of Marin Alsop's critically acclaimed performances of Bernstein's works is his Symphony No. 2, "Age of Anxiety," a major piano concerto in all but name. Commissioned by Bernstein's longtime mentor Serge Koussevitzky, the work is based on W.H. Auden's Pulitzer Prize-winning poem, "The Age of Anxiety," published in 1947. Auden's message of one man's quest for faith in an increasingly faithless world was a theme that Bernstein felt deeply. The Symphony's form mirrors that of Auden's text: six subsections, divided into two parts performed without a break; Bernstein scored the work for solo piano and orchestra. Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered the work in 1949 with the composer himself at the piano. For the BSO's performance, French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will return to the BSO as soloist.

"Bernstein's struggle to reconcile the tenants of his faith with the devastation of war is in full display in this dramatic work," said Maestra Alsop. "Every composition for Bernstein was a personal search for answers. His second symphony, inspired by the epic poem by W.H. Auden, 'Age of Anxiety,' is Bernstein's musical quest for faith in the aftermath of the Second World War's horrors. For Bernstein, hope was never lost and was always worth pursuing."

Thibaudet will also perform Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major, which was composed from 1929-1931 and was one of the last concertos that Ravel ever wrote. Piano concerto in G Major is described as vivid and light, featuring three very different movements. The first movement pays tribute to Ravel's past through a blend of Basque and Spanish melodies. The second is soulful and evokes a peaceful and calm feeling. The final movement returns to a faster tempo, much more intense than what is demonstrated in the first movement, before coming to a swift end.

Daphnis and Chloe: Suite No. 2 was originally composed as a ballet, but never succeeded as Ravel hoped it would. Fortunately, its lively music resonated with the music community and Ravel decided to write a suite focusing on the final three numbers from the ballet. Still today, Daphnis and Chloe: Suite No. 2 is considered to be one of the finest pieces of writing that Ravel ever produced.

Gershwin's Cuban Overture was first titled Rumba and was inspired by a trip to Havana where he heard a rumba band outside of his hotel window. The piece strongly resembles a Cuban dance and demonstrates Caribbean rhythms and uses Cuban percussion instruments, such as claves, maracas, guiros, and bongos. Gershwin even instructed conductors to place The Players of these instruments to be in front of the conductors stand. Cuban Overture premiered in 1932 at New York's Lewisohn Stadium where Gershwin received rave reviews.

Tickets range from $29 to $84 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org.

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