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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Mozart, Berlioz, and a World Premiere @ Utah Symphony: April 26 - 27




Media Contact:
Jon Miles | Vice President of Marketing & Public Relations
jmiles@usuo.org | 801-869-9021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
UTAH SYMPHONY PROGRAM FEATURES ROMANCE, OBSESSION AND A SIMON HOLT WORLD PREMIERE

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Symphony will present the world premiere of a commissioned orchestral work by British composer Simon Holt in an upcoming program also featuring popular works by Mozart and Berlioz.

The diverse program will include the orchestra, led by Music Director Thierry Fischer, performing Berlioz’s widely recognized “Symphonie fantastique,” a passionate and imaginative musical display of devotion, Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27 at 8 p.m. in Abravanel Hall. Opening the program will be Mozart’s Piano concerto No. 24 featuring Evelyn Rosenblatt Young Artist award winner Yu Kosuge. The Holt world premiere, titled “Ellsworth 2,” will also be featured on the first half of the program.

Unbeknownst to Irish actress Harriet Smithson, at the time, Berlioz wrote his “Symphonie fantastique” as a tribute to her. Though his love remained unrequited throughout its composition, the two eventually married a few years after the premiere.  “Symphonie fantastique” takes the listener on a journey through the mind of a love-struck musician as he endures drug-induced dreams that lead to a beheading at the scaffold and culminate in a twisted witch’s dance.

Mozart wrote 12 of his 27 piano concertos within a two-year span, and his 24th is viewed by many as his grandest.  The concerto reflects drama and emotion with noteworthy passion in the strings and a uniquely independent piano counterpart. The concerto is almost operatic which could be attributed to Mozart’s completion of his opera “The Marriage of Figaro” just prior to the concerto.  It was said that Beethoven even admitted a touch of envy when he first heard the concerto. 

“Ellsworth 2” was commissioned by Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony for the 2012-13 Masterworks Series. The piece is based on a painting by Ellsworth Kelly entitled “Painting for a white wall,” which contains five distinct color blocks of the same size.  Holt’s piece is written with five distinct sections of multiple orchestral colors representing each color block in the painting.

Single tickets for the performances range from $18 to $53 for April 26-27, 2013 and can be purchased by calling (801) 355-ARTS (2787), in person at the Abravanel Hall ticket office (123 W. South Temple) or by visiting www.utahsymphony.org.  Season ticket holders and those desiring group discounts should call (801) 533- NOTE (6683).  $10 tickets are available to youth and patrons 30 and younger through the USUO Upbeat program. All ticket prices are subject to change and availability.  Ticket prices will increase $5 when purchased on the day of the performance.   

About Yu Kosuge, Piano
Yu Kosuge has been giving recitals and performing with orchestras since early childhood. At the age of nine she made her debut with the Tokyo New City Orchestra.  In 1993, she moved to Europe to continue her studies in Hannover and Salzburg, and in recent years has received great support and inspiration from András Schiff. Yu Kosuge appears at the most important venues in Berlin, Hamburg, Köln, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Washington and New York. Her Carnegie Hall debut recital met with outstanding success with critics praising her “acutely poetic sensibility…wit, drama, and effulgent lyricism.”

Recent highlights include performing at the Salzburg Festival with Philippe Herreweghe and Camerata Salzburg, performances in La Roque d’Anthéron with Jacek Kaspszyk/Sinfonia Varsovia, the Japanese premiere of Tan Dun’s Piano Concerto ‘Fire’ with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer in Japan and a tour with the NDR Hannover Radio SO under Eiji Oue.

As well as regular performances in Asia with the Singapore Symphony and all the major Japanese orchestras, Yu Kosuge has worked with many of the leading European orchestras including the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Berliner Sinfonie Orchester, Radio-Sinfonie Orchester Frankfurt, Camerata Salzburg, St Petersburg Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Radio Symphony Orchestra Finland,. Yu Kosuge has performed with conductors of the stature of Seiji Ozawa, Jun Märkl, Philippe Herreweghe, Rudolf Barschai, Alexander Dmitriev, Gerd Albrecht, Lawrence Foster, Sakari Oramo, Christian Arming, Yutaka Sado, Osmo Vänskä,  Vasili Petrenko  and Dennis Russell Davies.  She has been invited to festivals in Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Passau, Braunschweig, Kissingen, at the Salzburger Festspiele, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Holland Music Festival, Piano Festival Lille, La Roque d’Anthéron piano festival and La Folle Journée de Nantes, France.In addition to her busy concert schedule in Europe, Yu performs regularly in Japan, where her tours with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo, Seiji Ozawa and the New Japan Philharmonic inspired rave reviews and great public acclaim.  Yu Kosuge lives in Munich.

Program

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto No. 24 in C Minor for Piano and Orchestra, K. 491
I. Allegro
II. Larghetto
III. Allegretto
Yu Kosuge, Piano
Simon Holt
Ellsworth 2

INTERMISSION


Hector Berlioz
Symphonie fantastique, op. 14
I. Reveries and Passions: Largo - Allegro agitato e
appassionato assai
II. A Ball: Waltz - Allegro non troppo
III. In the Country: Adagio
IV. March to the Scaffold: Allegretto non troppo
V. Dream of the Witches' Sabbath: Larghetto - Allegro

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