Lina González-Granados, Conductor
About the Show
In this Masterworks Series finale, the CSO travels through time and across the globe with music heavily infused with folk dances and sounds masterfully merged with orchestrated composition. Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto, Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, and an exciting opening piece that we can’t wait to announce soon.
Chicago Sun-Times wrote of conductor Lina González-Granados, “With her obvious podium skills, she is on her way to a vibrant career.” González-Granados has won multiple prizes and is internationally recognized for her powerful interpretations of the symphonic and operatic repertoire. In recent years, she has made debuts stateside with the LA Phil, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony, and Houston Symphony.
Grammy-nominated pianist Paul Sánchez will join the CSO to perform Edvard Grieg‘s Piano Concerto in A minor. Sánchez is highly praised by listeners and the media for his solo performances and recordings as well as his own compositions.
Grieg, also a talented pianist in addition to being a composer, wrote his Piano Concerto with obvious understanding and expertise of the keys. As such, it has become one of the most popular piano concertos among soloists and audiences alike. Expressive cellos, wistful woodwinds, and horns make significant appearances throughout, but never so that the piece becomes excessively emotive. The final movement of the concerto integrates inspiration from Grieg’s cultural heritage with a jaunty tune representing a dance common to rural Norway called the halling.
Edvard Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 7 in D minor
Antonín Dvořák is well-known for often melding his native Bohemian folk music with traditional symphonic structures. The result in his Symphony No. 7 is a delightful, at times dramatic, and sometimes downright hummable work. His distinctive integration is heard in the third movement when the rustic, easygoing dance plays over top of a traditional waltzlike melody. Dvořák accomplished what he intended – for Czech music to move the world – with his Seventh Symphony, which is considered by many to be his best.
MORE ON THE MUSIC:
- Paul Sánchez is Associate Professor, Director of Piano Studies and Artistic Director of the International Piano Series at the College of Charleston, a co- founder of the San Francisco International Piano Festival and the Charleston Chamber Music Intensive.
- Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor was the only concerto the composer ever completed.
- “My new symphony must be such as to make a stir in the world,” Dvořák wrote to a friend during 1884 (the year his Seventh Symphony was written).