HOUSTON (Nov. 8, 2019) – Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov returns to the Houston Symphony in Trifonov Plays Tchaikovsky, Nov. 22–24 at Jones Hall under the direction of guest conductor Krzysztof Urbański.
The Russian pianist and Musical America’s 2019 Artist of the Year takes center stage in Tchaikovsky’s challenging Piano Concerto No. 1. From its famous opening chords to its soaring finale, this emotional work is perhaps history’s most popular piano concerto. Urbański opens the program with a 2017 work by contemporary French composer Guillaume Connesson. Inspired by the fiction of American author H.P. Lovecraft, Connesson’s Celephaïs from The Cities of Lovecraft is a colorful evocation of a fantasy world.
The program concludes with Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s wildly imaginative Pictures at an Exhibition, a masterpiece inspired by the artworks of Mussorgsky’s friend Viktor Hartmann. Each movement is a vivid musical sketch, culminating in a raucous thrill ride on a witch’s broom in The Hut on Hen’s Legs and the overwhelming majesty of the work’s finale, The Great Gate of Kiev. One of the most popular orchestral works, Pictures at an Exhibition is a profound monument to the power of art to withstand the test of time.
Trifonov Plays Tchaikovsky, sponsored by Frost Bank Classics with additional support by Underwriter Margaret Alkek Williams, takes place at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana Street, in Houston’s Theater District. For tickets and information, please call 713.224.7575 or visit houstonsymphony.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the Houston Symphony Patron Services Center in Jones Hall (Monday–Saturday, 12–6 p.m.). All programs and artists are subject to change.
About the Houston Symphony
During the 2019–20 season, the Houston Symphony celebrates its sixth season with Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada and continues its second century as one of America’s leading orchestras with a full complement of concert, community, education, touring, and recording activities. The Houston Symphony, one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas, held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston June 21, 1913. Today, with an annual operating budget of $35.2 million, the full-time ensemble of 88 professional musicians presents nearly 170 concerts annually, making it the largest performing arts organization in Houston. Additionally, musicians of the orchestra and the Symphony’s four Community-Embedded Musicians offer over 1,000 community-based performances each year at various schools, community centers, hospitals, and churches reaching nearly 200,000 people in Greater Houston annually.
The Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony has recorded under various prestigious labels, including Naxos, Koch International Classics, Telarc, RCA Red Seal, Virgin Classics and, most recently, Dutch recording label Pentatone. In 2017, the Houston Symphony was awarded an ECHO Klassik award for the live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck under the direction of former Music Director Hans Graf. The orchestra earned its first Grammy nomination and Grammy Award at the 60th annual ceremony for the same recording in the Best Opera Recording category.