Louis Lortie Joins N.C. Symphony for Celebration of Liszt & Rachmaninoff

The North Carolina Symphony invites audiences to explore the breakthrough musical works of history's greatest piano virtuosos-turned-composers next month when pianist Louis Lortie joins Music Director Grant Llewellyn for "Liszt & Rachmaninoff."

This unique piano tribute, which follows Franz Liszt's 200th birthday on October 22, takes place in Memorial Hall on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Thursday, Nov. 10. The performances continue at Meymandi Concert Hall, in downtown Raleigh's Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11-12. All three concerts begin at 8:00 p.m.

French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has been praised worldwide for bringing his fresh perspective and individuality to a broad spectrum of the keyboard canon. He is particularly renowned for his renditions of Liszt and will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Liszt's birth by performing the complete Annees de Pelerinage at the Liszt Weimar Festival, New York's Lincoln Center, London's Queen Elizabeth Hall and elsewhere around the world.

North Carolina Symphony audience members will enjoy that expertise right here in the Triangle when Lortie joins the Symphony for a pair of Liszt piano masterpieces. He opens with the rarely heard Totentanz, a "dance of death" described by music scholar Abraham Veinus as "perhaps the most astounding combination of diabolism and virtuosity in the history of piano writing."

Lortie pairs this emotional powerhouse with a second Liszt favorite, the Fantasy on Motives from Beethoven's The Ruins of Athens. This flashy virtuoso piano solo, pulled from the Beethoven's colorful score to open The National Theatre in Budapest, features appropriately whirling melodies and feisty musical challenges for the pianist, given the Turkish setting. Audiences will also recognize Liszt's variation on Beethoven's popular Turkish March.

Alongside these piano classics, the Symphony offers two major orchestral breakthroughs by history's other inimitable piano virtuoso, Sergei Rachmaninoff. It opens the concert with the deep and emotional Isle of the Dead, derived from a haunting painting by Arnold Böcklin and famous now as one of Rachmaninoff's finest musical creations.

"[It] contains the synthesis of his style," wrote pioneering classical music record producer John Culshaw, "a final and complete acceptance of fate, allied with an ideal of peace in eternity, expressed through music of the utmost beauty."

Closing the performance is Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1-perhaps as legendary for its first performance, an unmitigated disaster that, though not Rachmaninoff's fault, put him into a depression that kept him from writing new music for two years. The work faired far better in later performances, displaying its young composer's now-characteristic, resonant musical voice, skill with large instrumental forms and strong, evocative emotional depth.

"Rachmaninoff is a much better composer than he gets credit for," concludes Llewellyn. "Everybody adores the piano concertos, but people love to dismiss Rachmaninoff as a great pianist. The artistry and substance of his craft is just at the highest of levels, and so, too, in his symphonies."

"Liszt & Rachmaninoff" is part of the Symphony's four-concert miniseries "Piano Icons." The miniseries, made up of programs from the larger Duke Medicine Classical Series Raleigh, showcases five world-class soloists as they perform the breakthrough works of music's most accomplished pianist-composers. "Piano Icons" is presented in partnership with Fidelity Investments.

Regular tickets to the Duke Medicine Classical Series Raleigh performances of "Liszt & Rachmaninoff" on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 28-29 range from $33 to $48, with $30 tickets for seniors.

Tickets to the Chapel Hill Series performance on Thursday, Oct. 27 range from $33 to $48, with $30 tickets for seniors.

Students receive $10 tickets at both venues.

Meymandi Concert Hall is located in the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, 2 E. South St., in Raleigh. Memorial Hall is located on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, at 208 E. Cameron Ave.

Beyond the Stage

Pre-concert talks and "Meet the Artist" events are held before Symphony concerts across the state. These engaging conversations offer a unique perspective on the evening's featured composers, as well as the chance to ask questions and hear the inside story on what to listen for.

For "Liszt & Rachmaninoff," Dr. Letita Glozer of UNC-Chapel Hill will present a pre-concert talk at UNC's Gerard Hall on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 7:00 p.m.

In Raleigh, Dr. Tom Koch of North Carolina State University will present pre-concert talks in the Meymandi Concert Hall lobby on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11, at 7:00 p.m. Catherine Brand of WUNC 91.5 FM will host "Meet the Artists" in the Meymandi Concert Hall lobby on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m.

About the North Carolina Symphony

Founded in 1932, the North Carolina Symphony performs over 175 concerts annually to adults and school children. The orchestra travels extensively throughout the state to venues in over 50 North Carolina counties. The orchestra employs 67 professional musicians under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Grant Llewellyn, Resident Conductor William Henry Curry and Associate Conductor Sarah Hicks.

Based in downtown Raleigh's spectacular Meymandi Concert Hall at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts and an outdoor summer venue at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary, N.C., the Symphony performs about 60 concerts annually in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary metropolitan area. It also holds regular concert series in Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines and Wilmington and individual concerts in many other North Carolina communities throughout the year.

For tickets, program notes, podcasts, musician profiles, the Symphony blog and more, visit the North Carolina Symphony Web site at www.ncsymphony.org. Call North Carolina Symphony Audience Services at 919.733.2750 or toll free 877.627.6724.

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