Palm Beach Symphony to Perform With Maria João Pires, March 7

Palm Beach Symphony presents two masterworks that deliver all the passion, poetry and drama of classical music as acclaimed pianist Maria João Pires makes a rare American appearance with Music Director Gerard Schwarz at the podium in a program of Beethoven and Mahler on Monday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

"Maria Pires is one of the more extraordinary pianists especially for Mozart and Beethoven," said Maestro Schwarz. "I've worked with her numerous times at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Her playing was always exquisite, poignant, very thoughtful and heartfelt."

Maria João Pires will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, a piece the composer wrote for himself fueled by his excitement for the evolution the piano was experiencing at the time. Of her performance of the work with Kent Nagano conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, The New York Times reported she is "...an elegant technician and probing interpreter without a trace of flashiness. Her playing of the Beethoven concerto showed that a performance can be both refined and bracing."

In addition to her concerts, Pires has made recordings for Erato for 15 years and Deutsche Grammophon for 20 years. Since the 1970s, she has devoted herself to reflecting the influence of art in life, community and education, trying to discover new ways of establishing this way of thinking in society. In 1999, she created the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in Portugal and, in 2012, she initiated two complementary projects in Belgium: the Partitura Choirs, a project which creates and develops choirs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the Partitura Workshops.

In the concert's second half, Palm Beach Symphony will be joined by soprano Emily Finke as it adds Mahler's Symphony No. 4 to its repertoire with its Sleigh Bells of childhood gaiety, dramatic tension and ultimately serene heavenly deliverance.

"Mahler's pieces often are characterized as big, long, heavy and loud, but not this one," said Maestro Schwarz. "This one is the shortest and offers more of a chamber music feel with a lovely soprano solo in the last movement. In a way, it's one of Mahler's more Mozartian symphonies."

South Florida Classical Review named Maestro Schwarz and the Frost Symphony Orchestra's performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 6 one of the top ten performances of 2021. He is the Music Director of the Frost Symphony Orchestra and the Distinguished Professor of Music; Conducting and Orchestral Studies at University of Miami's Frost School of Music. He is also the Music Director of the Eastern Music Festival and Mozart Orchestra of New York as well as Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. He recently released a recording of Schubert's Symphony No. 9 with the New York Chamber Symphony and his extensive catalogue of more than 350 recordings includes The Gerard Schwarz Collection, a 30-CD box set.

Praised by South Florida Classical Review for her "rich color palette" and "deft high range," Finke has performed with Frost Opera Theater as a featured soloist in excerpts of John Adams' El Niño and in the roles of Geraldine from Barber's A Hand of Bridge and Noelle from Leanna Kirchoff's Scrapbookers. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from the Frost School of Music in May.

Recent Kennedy Center Honor Awardee for Lifetime Artistic Achievement Midori will join Palm Beach Symphony in a season finale of three Palm Beach Symphony premieres on April 10.

The concert is sponsored by Patrick and Milly Park. Peter M. Gottsegen, The Lachman Family Foundation, Patrick and Milly Park, Felicia Taylor/The Mary Hilem Taylor Foundation, DeLuca Foundation, Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation, Charles and Ann Johnson/The C and A Johnson Family Foundation, Patricia Lambrecht, Dodie and Manley Thaler and the Thaler/Howell Foundation, NetJets, Lugano Diamonds, Findlay Galleries, HSS Florida, PNC Private Bank, The Colony Hotel, Related Companies, Provident Jewelry, IYC, Palm Beach Design Masters, Braman Motorcars, CIBC Private Wealth, and Gent Row LLC are proud sponsors of Palm Beach Symphony. Programs are also sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

Tickets are $25-$95 and are available online at www.palmbeachsymphony.org; by phone at (561) 281-0145; or by visiting the Palm Beach Symphony Box Office, Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. The Kravis Center is located at 701 Okeechobee Blvd in West Palm Beach.

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