Special Guests Join Grand Rapids Symphony to Ring in the New Year With Music of Mozart and Shostakovich

Mozart knew a thing or two about how to please an audience.

The great German composer wrote his Piano Concerto No. 22 to be performed in 1786 during Lent when the theaters and opera houses were closed in Vienna in observance of the Christian season just prior to Easter. But the previous December, he gave a workshop performance during the intermission of an oratorio titled Esther by composer Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf.

The audience was so taken with the charming second movement, they demanded an encore on the spot. Dittersdorf , a respected composer in his day, lived nearly twice as long as Mozart, but his music is little heard today. Today, the music of Mozart can be found everywhere.

Pianist Jeffrey Kahane along with guest conductor Peter Oundjian will join the Grand Rapids Symphony for encore performances of their own in a concert titled Shostakovich and Mozart on Friday and Saturday, January 10-11, 2020, in DeVos Performance Hall.

For Kahane's debut with the Grand Rapids Symphony in January 1989, he played Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, under former Music Director Catherine Comet.

For Oundjian's conducting debut with the Grand Rapids Symphony in January 2004, he led the orchestra in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467.

Now in January 2020, both will be back on stage with the Grand Rapids Symphony, this time together, for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482.

Peter Oundjian will lead the fifth concert of the 2019-20 Richard and Helen DeVos Classical series at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, January 10-11, in DeVos Performance Hall. Guest artist sponsor is the Edith I. Blodgett Guest Artist Fund.

Twenty-one years after his first appearance in DeVos Performance Hall, pianist Jeffrey Kahane will return with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22.

Since then, the pianist has made several appearances in West Michigan. In May 2012, Kahane performed in St. Cecilia Music Center with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as part of the 2012 Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. Four years later in Kalamazoo, Kahane played and conducted from the piano with the Gilmore Festival Chamber Orchestra, featuring musicians from both the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestras.

Guest conductor Peter Oundjian, who will lead the orchestra in music by Dmitri Shostakovich and Richard Strauss, also will return for his second performance with the Grand Rapids Symphony.

Oundjian, who recently stepped down from his post as Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 14 years, will lead the Grand Rapids Symphony in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103, "The Year 1905."

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11 recalled the events of series of worker strikes in St. Petersburg, Russia, that crippled the city. A priest led a huge procession of workers to the Winter Palace with a petition for Tsar Nicholas II. But the palace guard opened fire on the demonstrators and nearly 1,000 people were killed on Jan. 9, 1905 in what became known as "Bloody Sunday."

Shostakovich's symphony, which is cinematic in scope, was composed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The Soviet authorities were pleased with the piece, which quoted several Russian folk songs, which were well known to the audience at its premiere in 1957. But as with much of Shostakovich's music, there is a dark undertone to the music. On the surface, it was composed to celebrate the 1917 Russian Revolution. But beneath the surface, Shostakovich was composing in the aftermath of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising against Soviet domination, which was brutally suppressed by the state.

Rounding out the concert will be Richard Strauss' Serenade for Winds, Op. 7, a charming piece that the great German composer of such epic tone poems as Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, and Ein Heldenleben, referred to as "nothing more than the respectable work of a music student." He was, after all, only 16 years old.

Inside the Music, a free, pre-concert, multi-media presentation sponsored by BDO USA, will be held before each performance at 7 p.m. in the DeVos Place Recital Hall.

The complete Shostakovich and Mozart will be rebroadcast on April 5, 2020, at 1 p.m. on Blue Lake Public Radio 88.9 FM or 90.3 FM.

Tickets

Tickets for Shostakovich and Mozart start at $18, available by calling the GRS ticket office at (616) 454-9451 ext. 4. Phone orders will be charged a $3 per ticket handling fee ($18 maximum per order). There are no fees for tickets purchased in person at the GRS ticket office at 300 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 100, (located across the street from Calder Plaza). Ticket office hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Tickets are available at the DeVos Place box office, weekdays 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. or on the day of the concert beginning two hours prior to the performance. Tickets may be purchased online at GRSymphony.org.

Special Offers

Full-time students of any age can purchase tickets for $5 on day of the concert by enrolling in the GRS Student Tickets program, sponsored by Calvin University. Discounts also are available to members of MySymphony360, the Grand Rapids Symphony's organization for young professionals ages 21-35.

Students age 7-18 also are able to attend for free when accompanied by an adult. Free for Kids tickets must be purchased in advance at the GRS Ticket office. Up to two free tickets are available with the purchase of a regular-price adult ticket. Go online for more details.

Symphony Scorecard provides members up to four free tickets for most Grand Rapids Symphony concerts. Members of the community receiving financial assistance from the State of Michigan and members of the U.S. Armed Forces, whether on active or reserve duty or serving in the National Guard, are eligible. Go online for information on signing up with a Symphony Scorecard Partner Agency.

About the Grand Rapids Symphony

Organized in 1930, the Grand Rapids Symphony is nationally recognized for the quality of its concerts, the breadth of its educational programs, and the innovation of its initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion as well as to serve the wider community in non-traditional settings. Led by Music Director Marcelo Lehninger, Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt and Associate Conductor John Varineau, the Grand Rapids Symphony presents nine concert series each year. Its Gateway to Music provides a matrix of 18 unique access and educational programs for adults and children of all ages. Altogether, West Michigan's largest performing arts organization offers more than 400 performances per year, touching the lives of some 200,000, nearly half of whom are students, senior citizens or people with disabilities. Affiliated organizations include the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus, the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony, the Grand Rapids Symphony Youth Chorus, and the biennial Grand Rapids Bach Festival, which returns in April 2021. GRS collaborates annually with Opera Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids Ballet and biennially with the Gilmore Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo.