Stars of the ivories shine this Tuesday night across the generations! Seasoned master pianist Emanuel Ax returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA, and fresh young star pianist Yuja Wang will perform at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.
Emanuel Ax in Recital
Emanuel Ax performs on Tuesday, April 20, at Disney Hall. / photo courtesy of LA Phil
The Los Angeles Philharmonic presents internationally renowned resident pianist Emanuel Ax with another superb solo concert. The program features the West Coast premiere of another current LA Phil resident artist, Thomas Adès. His Three Mazurkas, co-commissioned by the LA Phil and premiered by Ax in Carnegie Hall last February, spin a modern twist on the traditional form so identified with Chopin.
Adès started his rise to stardom as a pianist, winning second prize in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1989 at age 18. He then won the Grawemeyer Award for Composition in 2000 to distinguish himself as the youngest composer ever to receive the award. He is familiar to LA audiences, but his impressive performance history and recordings extend his fame worldwide.
Naturally, copious Chopin charts are on the program: Polonaise-Fantasie; Mazurkas, Op.41 No.1, Op.24 No.2, Op.56 No.3; and the Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise, Op.22. Rounding out the event are Schumann’s Fantasy, Op.17 and Fantasiestücke, Op.12.
Tuesday, April 20, 8 p.m.
Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., LA
Tickets: Call (323) 850-2000 for availability.
https://www.laphil.com/tickets/performance-detail.cfm?id=4113
Pianist Yuja Wang
The Philharmonic Society of Orange County presents sensational young pianist Yuja Wang. Born in Beijing in 1987, Wang was only 15 when she won the Aspen Music Festival’s concerto competition and moved to the United States to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her rising star was evident when she received the Gilmore Young Artist Award in 2006.
The program features the Chopin Piano Sonata No.2, Schubert’s Three Lieder, a selection of poems and etudes by Scriabin, and Prokofiev’s Sonata No.6.
Tuesday, April 20, 8 p.m.
Pre-concert lecture by Beth Sussman at 7 p.m.
Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 615 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
For information, call (714) 556-2787.
These concerts were selected from among events listed in Jim Eninger’s Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter – check it out to see an extensive calendar of upcoming music events, large and small, happening all around Los Angeles.