Mahler Chamber Orchestra | Yuja Wang | Teddy Abrams | Copland | Barber | Dukas | Tsfasman

For 25 years, Yuja Wang has dazzled the music world with her stupendous virtuosity, yet routine has never crept in. She is always searching for something new, eager to discover the unfamiliar and reinvent herself. The Festival theme “American Dreams” immediately resonated with her. That’s why she has added Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto to her repertoire: a work that picks up threads from Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff, yet also shows the influence of Bartók and jazz. The result was so striking that Barber received the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1963. The real fun starts in the second half, when Yuja Wang performs the Jazz Suite by the Ukrainian composer Alexander Tsfasman — taking on the musical direction herself. She has a true feeling for jazz and, not coincidentally, received the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her album The American Project. Her longtime friend Teddy Abrams was on the podium for that recording. In Lucerne, he will conduct the first half of the concert, beginning with Aaron Copland’s refreshing Appalachian Spring, with its echoes of folk songs, hymns, square dances, and fiddle music. America at its best!

Performers:
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Yuja Wang, piano and musical direction (Tsafsman)
Teddy Abrams, conductor (first half of the concert)

Program:
18.30 Introduction to the Concert with Susanne Stähr (KKL Luzern, Auditorium, in German)

Aaron Copland (1900–1990)
Appalachian Spring. Suite for orchestra

Samuel Barber (1910–1981)
Piano concerto, Op. 38

Paul Dukas (1865–1935)
Fanfare pour précéder “La Péri”

Samuel Barber (1910–1981)
Mutations from Bach for brass and timpani

Alexander Tsfasman (1906–1971)
Jazz Suite for piano and orchestra

Intermission at c. 20.30