Conductor Gianandrea Noseda Returns to The BNY Mellon Grand Classics Program with Casella, Prokofiev and Schumann, 2/21-23

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Victor de Sabata Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda join with multi-award winning pianist, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, for a BNY Mellon Grand Classics program infused with the power of hope, comedy and tragedy. The program runs Feb. 21 and Feb. 23 at Heinz Hall.

Noseda will lead the Pittsburgh Symphony in a dynamic presentation of three beautifully moving pieces. The concert begins with the exotic, witty and vibrantly scored Symphonic Fragments No. 1 and 2 from Alfredo Casella's La Donna Serpente. Bavouzet will then perform Sergei Prokofiev's dauntingly complex Concerto No. 5. In the second half, the symphony will perform Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 2, a remarkably uplifting piece given the composer's struggle with illness and depression.

Each BNY Mellon Grand Classics concert is part of the Explore & Engage program, which includes pre-concert talks, exhibits, display boards and interactive activities that illuminate the music, composers and the time in which they created. This weekend, Jim Cunningham of WQED FM will conduct a pre-concert talk one hour before each performance.

The concerts will begin at 8 p.m. on Friday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets ranging in price from $25.75 to $105.75 can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or by visiting pittsburghsymphony.org

The Pittsburgh Symphony would like to recognize and thank BNY Mellon for its 2013-2014 title sponsorship of BNY Mellon Grand Classics. Fairmont Pittsburgh is the official hotel of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Delta Air Lines is the official airline of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Multiple-award-winning pianist and ICMA Artist of the Year in 2012, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is renowned for his performances of works by Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, Bartók, Beethoven and Haydn. He regularly works with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vasily Petrenko, Pierre Boulez, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kirill Karabits, Andris Nelsons, Krzysztof Urba?ski, Lawrence Foster and Iván Fischer. Recent and upcoming highlights include a return to the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, where he opened the 2013 festival with a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.4 under the baton of Louis Langrée, and a return to the BBC Proms with regular collaborators Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and performances with San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Sydney Symphony and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Other recent collaborations include appearances with the Boston Symphony and Budapest Festival orchestras, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France. In the 2013-14 season, Bavouzet makes his debuts with the Pittsburgh, Seattle and Beijing symphony orchestras, and returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra (for a Beethoven concerto cycle over two days), Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and Tivoli Symphony Orchestra (in a program directed from the piano). He is artist-in-residence with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo in 2014, and further ahead, he returns to the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski. A former student of Pierre Sancan at the Paris Conservatoire, Bavouzet won first prize in the International Beethoven Competition in Cologne and made his American debut through Young Concert Artists in New York in 1987. As well as his performing activities, Bavouzet has made a transcription for two pianos of Debussy's Jeux, published by Durand with a foreword by Pierre Boulez. Bavouzet is artistic director of the Lofoten Piano Festival in Norway. For more information, please visit bavouzet.com

Gianandrea Noseda is among the world's most sought-after conductors. Since becoming music director of the Teatro Regio Torino in 2007, he has propelled it into the ranks of leading opera houses. Noseda is chief guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, Victor De Sabata Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony and Conductor Laureate of the BBC Philharmonic. His career took off in 1997 when he was appointed the first foreign principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre. In 2002, he became principal conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, a post he held for nearly 10 years. He now visits many of the world's great orchestras, including regular engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra. In addition to conducting numerous productions in Torino each season, Noseda's work with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio Torino includes major recording projects and international tours and residencies he instituted in Asia (Japan and China) and Europe. In May he took his Italian forces to perform the Verdi Requiem at the Dresden Music Festival and then to the Vienna Konzerthaus for the first time. The current season has seen successful debuts in Europe at the Vienna State Opera as well as in the United States with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Born in Milan, Noseda is one of the highest profile Italian cultural figures, and regularly speaks publicly about the need to continue investing in culture despite difficult economic conditions. In March 2012, he was able to communicate the message to a massive American TV audience when he was interviewed on the subject on CNBC's iconic "Closing Bell" with Maria Bartiromo at the New York Stock Exchange. He holds the Honor of "Cavaliere Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana."

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh's Cultural District, Heinz Hall also hosts many other events that do not feature its world-renowned orchestra, including Broadway shows, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org.

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