Season
Premiere
Fri., Sept. 28, 2018
7:30 p.m.
Sat., Sept. 29, 2018
8:00 p.m.
Sun., Sept. 30, 2018
2:30 p.m.
Music Program:
Higdon | Fanfare Ritmico
Prokofiev | Romeo and Juliet Suite
Brahms | Concerto No. 2
Featuring:
John DeMain, Conductor
Emanuel Ax, Piano
Prelude Discussion
Enjoy a 30-minute talk by Michael Allsen, program notes annotator, starting one hour before each concert in Overture Hall. Free to ticketholders.
I’m honored to open my 25th season with one of the world’s great pianists, Emanuel Ax. Together we will collaborate on the monumental second piano concerto of Brahms. Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorite ballets and I want the audience to hear the absolute best excerpts from this amazing work, so I put together my own suite — a big orchestra piece that is truly breathtaking.
– John DeMain
Emanuel Ax is considered one of the best-known concert pianists of the 21st century. Mr. Ax captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists followed by the coveted Avery Fisher Prize four years later. He is a particular supporter of contemporary composers and has given three world premieres in the last few seasons; Century Rolls by John Adams, Seeing by Christopher Rouse and Red Silk Dance by Bright Sheng, as well as works by Krzysztof Penderecki, and Melinda Wagner. Mr. Ax regularly performs duo recitals with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and played quartets with Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo. Mr. Ax has received Grammy awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with cellist Yo-Yo Ma of the L.v. Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. Mr. Ax is currently a faculty member of the Juilliard School of Music, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recipient of Yale University’s Sanford Medal.
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Madison Symphony Orchestra
222 W. Washington Ave. Suite 460
Madison, WI 53703
Presenting sponsor:
Joel and Kathryn Belaire
Major funding provided by:
Irving and Dorothy Levy Family Foundation, Inc.
Kenneth A. Lattman Foundation, Inc.
Rosemarie and Fred Blancke
David and Kato Perlman
Additional funding provided by:
Jeffrey and Angela Bartell
Marvin L. Conney
with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts