Mozart & Brahms

Celebrated Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan brings his structural insight and expressive restraint to Brahms’ colossal First Symphony, a work that took the composer nearly two decades to complete. “Seldom, if ever, has the entire musical world awaited a composer’s first symphony with such tense anticipation,” wrote music critic Eduard Hanslick in 1876. The piece was, and still is, an overwhelming triumph, best remembered for its pounding timpani, pizzicato moments, radiant horn call reminiscent of Alpine melodies, and nod to the “Ode to Joy.” Some even dubbed the symphony “Beethoven’s Tenth” because of how Brahms tied in Beethoven’s catchy melody.

In between the symphony and Brahms’ Haydn Variations—a cherished, majestic, and ever-shifting experimentation with an early choral—pianist Jan Lisiecki makes his LA Phil debut with the surprising dark intensity of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20. Lisiecki made his orchestral debut at nine and recorded the concerto by the time he was 15. The Canadian pianist offers his “immaculate technique and poetic insight” (The New York Times) to Mozart’s concerto that balances operatic turbulence with moments of luminous calm.

Program

• Johannes Brahms — Variations on a Theme by Haydn
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Piano Concerto No. 20
• Johannes Brahms — Symphony No. 1