The Richmond Symphony

Just 30, Conrad Tao, says the Detroit Free Press “owns a place among the world’s virtuosos.  He blew the doors off in a performance hair-raising in its technical brilliance.”   Experience his phenomenal artistry in music from the jazz-age: George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F.  and his mercurial homage to Gershwin, Flung Out.”   And rising American conductor Ben Manis leads Mozart’s great, final Symphony No. 41, the “Jupiter.”

The great strength and nobility of Brahms’ Fourth and final Symphony places it among his most profound achievements. Valentina Peleggi conducts, and the Richmond Symphony’s own Neal Cary plays Dvořák’s elegy for a long-lost love, the impassioned Cello Concerto, composed during the composer’s American sojourn. To begin, a colorful new work, commissioned by the Richmond Symphony from Jasmine Guo. A composer for cinema as well as the concert stage, her distinguished works have been honored and acclaimed.

Valentina Peleggi conducts two American masterworks. Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man has moved many Americans, even Copland himself.  The finale of his Third Symphony is based on that stirring theme. In speaking of her Hymn for Everyone, Jessie Montgomery recalled “I wrote it  during the pandemic, and I was in a moment of reflection. I was inspired by the Hymn as a tradition of offering some solace.” Also, Angela Chen plays Beethoven’s poetic Fourth Piano Concerto.  “Enthralling,” raved Toronto’s Globe and Mail. “She is speaking with her own voice about works in which she is passionately involved.”  

Majestic in its scope. Dazzling in its sound. There is nothing to match the experience of hearing, live in concert, The Planets. Be there for the ultimate trip through the galaxy as Richmond Symphony and Valentina Peleggi perform Gustav Holst’s sonic celestial showpiece. Plus, the suite from John Williams’ Star Wars. Also featured on this final concert of a season, exploring 250 years of American music and history, is a world premiere from composer and story-teller Stacy Garrop, commissioned from her by the Richmond Symphony. 

Richmond audience favorite Chia-Hsuan Lin returns to begin the new season with music by Taiwanese American composer Ke-Chia Chen. “Lyrical and delicate,” is how The Philadelphia Enquirer has defined her sound. A Lasting Bond is a galloping, soaring hymn to a vanishing native culture.  The sultry passion and unforgettable melodies of Carmen beguile throughout  the orchestral suites drawn from Bizet’s mesmerizing masterwork. The Concert Piece for Four Horns by Robert Schumann is one of the most unique concertos in the repertoire, and one of the most thrilling especially when performed by four of music’s top players: The American Horn Quartet.  “The finest brass chamber ensemble in the world,” declares the American Record Guide.   

It was a young, desperate love that inspired the young Frederic Chopin. Too shy to declare his feelings, he wrote: “I say to my piano what I would like to be saying to you…”  The masterful Minsoo Sohn performs Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto. Sohn is described by the New York Times as “a genuine artist, with a thoughtful and poetic interpretation,” and by the Boston Globe as “born to play the piano.” This concert of great romantics also features Rachmaninoff’s ravishing Second Symphony.

 

Francesca Dego, who thrilled Richmond audiences in her 2024 debut, returns for Beethoven’s towering Violin Concerto. Of her Beethoven, the Dallas Morning News raved: “She proved that pianissimos can be as gripping as fortissimos. Her gleaming tone was striking, with commitment, facility, and finesse. A rock-star ovation was rewarded.” Valentina Peleggi also conducts Charles Ives’s truth- searching meditation, The Unanswered Question, and Dvořák’s broodingly powerful Symphony No. 7.

In composing his epic, moving Requiem, Damien Geter was inspired by those composed earlier by Mozart, Berlioz, Brahms, and especially Verdi. Within the traditional Latin text, Geter’s Requiem weaves the words of victims of lynching and of those who dared speak out. “A Requiem memorializes a person,” Geter has stated.  “We need to memorialize these folks in some way, to keep their names alive. And this is the way I choose to honor them.”