From Russia with Jazz

Spring Festival

at Orpheum Theatre

06 April —

Saturday 8:00 pm

Orpheum Theatre

Buy Now

Artists

Otto Tausk
VSO Music Director
Stewart Goodyear
Piano

Approx. 90 Minute Performance

1 Intermission

Program

Rimsky-Korsakov
The Snow Maiden: Dance of the Buffoons
Gershwin
Piano Concerto in F Major
Rachmaninoff
Symphony No. 2 in E minor

George Gershwin, the American son of Jewish-Russian immigrants, was recognized as a musical genius, though he struggled to be taken seriously as an orchestral composer; but his Piano Concerto was a triumph, heavily influenced by jazz but very much like a traditional concerto.

Sergei Rachmaninoff moved to America following the Russian Revolution, and was removed from the trials and tribulations of the burgeoning Soviet political machine; his Symphony No. 2 is an epic, luscious Romantic feast. Fellow Russian composer Rimsky- Korsakov’s Dance of the Buffoons seems like appropriate music to include, describing as its title does certain present-day politicians.

FESTIVAL SPONSOR