Ferrández Plays Saint-Saëns

A concert for lovers of the cello’s deep, soulful sound. Pablo Ferrández, praised as a “new cello genius” (Le Figaro) and prizewinner of the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, brings passion and power to Saint-Saëns’s dramatic Cello Concerto. Also on the program is Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, filled with sweeping melodies and vivid storytelling that traces the trials and triumphs of a hero’s journey. Most delightfully, PSO Concertmaster David McCarroll will play the famous solo.

Opening the program is Julia Wolfe’s Liberty Bell, a co-commission created as part of our America250 celebration, which draws inspiration from the bell that has come to symbolize freedom and perseverance. In this vibrant new work, the orchestra becomes a resounding instrument of clamor and hope: metallic chimes and bell plates ring out, rhythmic lines collide and intertwine, and the music proclaims, in Wolfe’s words, that “obtaining liberty is not a quiet tidy process—it is a messy, boisterous, ongoing, interlocking struggle."

THE PROGRAM:

• JULIA WOLFE: Liberty Bell [PSO CO-COMMISSION]
• SAINT-SAËNS: Cello Concerto No. 1
• STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben