Brahms & Liszt

Liszt’s piano concertos challenge even the most virtuosic pianists, and his passionate Second is no exception, traversing the keyboard with knuckle-cramping, breakneck passages that render the player’s hands a blur. Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin, a “marvelous, moving” artist (The New York Times) whose “technical finesse borders on the supernatural” (The Seattle Times), is more than equal to the challenge. The program opens with Brahms’s Symphony No. 3, a work of sweeping lyricism and dramatic contrasts that balances power with intimacy and is beloved for its rich melodies and unmistakable warmth.