Pepe Plays Ponce

Join the ASO for a performance filled with Mediterranean flair, passionate music, and momentos sin respiración (moments of breathlessness). We open with G. Rossini’s Overture to The Barber of Seville, his opening to that most famous comedic opera that uses masterful storytelling and music to bring to life the magic of Spain.

World-famous guitarist Pepe Romero brings Manuel Ponce’s Concierto del Sur to life. Romero is a living legend in the world of classical music. Honored by kings, heads of state, and major institutions, Romero’s most significant contribution to music is his affinity for connecting the richness and beauty of classical guitar to every audience.

Homenaje, which premiered in Madrid in 1937, is widely regarded as one of Revueltas’ most compelling works. It combines a highly personal and modernist approach juxtaposing folk, popular, and Indigenous musical elements. Revueltas used musical elements of folk, popular, and Indigenous music in his homage to the Spanish Civil War martyr, Federico García Lorca.

We move from Spain to southern France in a performance of Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose), a beautiful musical rendering of childhood fairy tales brought to life by Ravel, whose compositions were strongly influenced by his mother’s Basque-Spanish heritage. Ravel originally wrote this piece as a five-movement suite for piano four hands, but in 1911 made an orchestral transcription and expanded the suite into a full-scale ballet. It is this version audiences will experience at Masterworks II.

Masterworks Iii

Raging Fire

TCHAIKOVSKY & SIBELIUS WITH VIOLINIST ELISSA LEE

KOLJONEN

7:30 pm

FEBRUARY 2 & 3, 2024

Maryland Hall

3:00 pm

FEBRUARY 4, 2024

Strathmore

Narong Prangcharoen, Raging Fire

J. Sibelius, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47

Elissa Lee Koljonen, violin

P. I. Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, “Pathétique”