The Witty and the Wicked

Three of the defining voices of the Romantic era blaze forth in this spectacular program! Liszt’s breathtaking Piano Concerto No. 1 was the obsession of his life, a work he wrote and rewrote for decades; creating, at last, one of the great works in the repertoire. It’s also one of the most fiendishly difficult to play, with intricate ornamentation and arpeggios dashing from the top to the bottom of the keyboard—a brilliant challenge for Haochen Zhang, hailed for his “enchanting, sensitive lyricism and hypnotizing forcefulness” (The Jerusalem Post).

A pair of Richard Strauss masterworks shine in brilliant contrast: the rollicking tale of the sly trickster Till Eulenspiegel and the frenzied madness of Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils—one of the unforgettable moments in Strauss’s opera that so shocked turn-of-the-20th-century audiences.

And the appetizer for this feast of romantic masterworks? Wagner’s soaring Tannhauser Overture, deliciously sampling the themes of his opera, including a saucy ode to Venus and the lusty side of love.