Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra / Yefim Bronfman / Manfred Honeck
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has a distinguished history of promoting new American works. In 1986, for example, it premiered John Adams’s fanfare for orchestra »Short Ride in a Fast Machine«, with which the musicians opened their concert in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall under the direction of long-standing chief conductor Manfred Honeck. For Rachmaninov’s mighty »Concerto for Elephants«, whose piano part allegedly has the most notes per second of all the great piano concertos, the Grammy award winning orchestra will be joined by brilliant American pianist Yefim Bronfman. The programme continues in a late Romantic style after the interval with an orchestral suite from Giacomo Puccini’s last opera »Turandot« – even without vocals, great emotions unfold in an arrangement by Manfred Honeck. The work is juxtaposed with Stravinsky’s music to the ballet »The Firebird«, in which Ivan Tsarevich defeats the evil sorcerer Kastschei with the help of a fantastic bird.