Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and soprano Ah Young Hong perform Gÿorgy Kurtág’s electrifying Kafka Fragments. A musical setting of forty short excerpts from Kafka's letters and diaries, Kurtág creates a mosaic of musical styles reflecting life's disparate emotions ranging from introspective to dramatic to humorous.

“You can tell by the wild cheering emanating from Benaroya Hall: Thomas Dausgaard is back in town.” – The Seattle Times

Marrying dynamism and theatricality, Music Director Thomas Dausgaard illuminates music by two influential Scandinavian composers and Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto with the riveting violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

A combination of depth, brilliance and humor, Patricia Kopatchinskaja brings a sense of theatrics to her performances of Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1. The work offers an unguarded view into Shostakovich’s private, deeply felt reserves of emotion.

Dausgaard leads the orchestra in music by Denmark’s greatest musical hero, Carl Nielsen. In perfect contrast to Shostakovich’s brooding concerto, Nielsen’s Symphony No. 1 brims with energy from the ecstatic opening notes to the exultant finale.

Program

Edvard Grieg

Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46

Dmitri Shostakovich

Violin Concerto No. 1

Carl Nielsen

Symphony No. 1

From the Music Director

Song of America: Beyond Liberty illuminates and questions the role of core American values such as freedom and brotherhood, and it engages how these values have shaped the course of American culture. By pairing music, poetry, rhetoric, and history, the beloved American baritone Thomas Hampson introduces us to his unique examination of Americana. This evening-length work explores the influential people, poetry, and events that helped create and define “the land of the free.” The program will straddle centuries, feature works by composers new and known, highlight the poetry and events that shaped our history, and has been created to feature Thomas Hampson and acclaimed pianist Lara Downes. Downes leads the Beyond Liberty Players, who will accompany the pair in arrangements commissioned for the show.

Beyond Liberty is the culmination of Hampson’s years long commitment to the question “Who is the American Schubert? Who is the American Brahms?”—Who are the composers who saw American culture and captured it in song and verse? Beyond Liberty tells our collective story through the eyes of poets and the ears of composers. The show and associated educational events will travel to all 50 US states, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico over the next several seasons. The project is accompanied by the Beyond Liberty Players, a diverse ensemble of exceptional musicians.

Gidon Kremer performs his violin transcriptions of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Preludes for Solo Cello in the intimate setting of Octave 9. Then, Kremer will perform J.S. Bach’s monumental Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor for Solo Violin.

Singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III returns to Benaroya Hall for a candid evening of folk songs as only he could write. His songs, filled with sharp wit and a self-mocking style, have been recorded by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, Earl Scruggs, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and his son Rufus Wainwright. Born in Chapel Hill, N.C. in 1946, Loudon Wainwright III came to fame when “Dead Skunk” became a Top 20 hit in 1972. He had studied acting at Carnegie-Mellon University, but dropped out to partake in the “Summer of Love” in San Francisco, and wrote his first song in 1968 (“Edgar,” about a lobsterman in Rhode Island). He was soon signed to Atlantic Records by Nesuhi Ertegun, and was lured by Clive Davis to Columbia Records, which released “Dead Skunk.” Wainwright has recorded 27 albums, including his Grammy-winning High, Wide & Handsome (2010).