The CSO to Conclude 2014-15 Masterworks Season with BRAHMS & TCHAIKOVSKY, 5/22-23

The 2014-15 Masterworks season comes to a stunning climax with two monumental works for orchestra-a mighty piano concerto by Brahms and a compelling symphony in which Tchaikovsky faces the dark forces of providence and invites us to celebrate joyous victory with him. Led by guest conductor Thomas Wilkins and featuring guest pianist Anna Vinnitskaya, the program includes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.

The Columbus Symphony presents Brahms & Tchaikovsky at the Ohio Theatre (39 E. State St.) on Friday, May 22, at 8pm and Saturday, May 23, at 8pm. Tickets start at $10 and can be purchased at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 228-8600 or (800) 745-3000. The CAPA Ticket Center will also be open two hours prior to each performance. Young people between the ages of 13-25 may purchase $5 All Access tickets while available. For more information, visit www.GoFor5.com.

WOSU's Christopher Purdy will hold a free, pre-concert lecture about the program for ticket holders one hour prior to each performance.

The 2014-15 Masterworks Series is made possible through the generous support of season sponsor Anne Melvin.

Music Director of the Omaha Symphony since 2005, Thomas Wilkins also holds the positions of Principal Guest Conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra as well as the Germeshausen Family and Youth Concert Conductor chair with the Boston Symphony. Devoted to promoting a life-long enthusiasm for music, Wilkins is hailed as a master at communicating and connecting with audiences of all ages. Following his highly successful first season with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Globe named him among the "Best People and Ideas of 2011."

Hailed by the Washington Post as a "lioness at the keyboard," Anna Vinnitskaya has emerged as one of the most exciting pianists of her generation. Born in 1983 in Novorossiysk, Russia, she played her first orchestral concert at the age of eight and her first recital at the age of nine. She has won several international piano competitions and received numerous awards, most notably first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels (2007) and the Leonard Bernstein Award at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (2008).

Brahms was a German composer and virtuoso pianist. He composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus, premiering many of his own works with some of the leading performers of his time. His Piano Concerto No. 1 was first performed on January 22, 1859, in Hanover, Germany, when Brahms was just 25 years old. The audience received it coldly. The second performance, five days later, was in Leipzig with the highly prestigious Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Brahms thought he had played the concerto "significantly better than in Hanover, the orchestra outstandingly," but at the end, only a few in the audience tried to clap and were soon overwhelmed by hissing. The third performance was March 24, 1859, in a concert with the Hamburg Philharmonic at which violinist Joseph Joachim and baritone Julius Stockhausen also performed. The concert was a great success. Brahms revised the work and its fourth performance was with the Hamburg Philharmonic conducted by Georg Dietrich Otten and was not a success. Another performance came December 3, 1861, again with the Hamburg Philharmonic and Brahms himself conducting, but again, was unsuccessful with the audience. In its first five performances, it had only been a success with one of the audiences. Brahms put it aside for many years.

Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer whose works included symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, chamber music, and a choral setting of the Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Some of these are among the most popular theatrical music in the classical repertoire. His Symphony No. 5 was composed between May and August 1888, and was first performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on November 18 of that year with Tchaikovsky conducting. Possibly because of its very clear expression of the idea of "ultimate victory through strife," this work was very popular during WWII, with many new recordings and many performances during those years.

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