Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Concerts in SoCal

Program: Donghoon Shin: Dance Card; Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S. 125; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Suite from Swan Lake , Op. 20 Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Elim Chan (conductor); Yefim Bronfman (piano) Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake bursts with unflinching beauty, passion, and drama that is known the world over, but when Elim Chan performed a version of the suite in San Francisco last year she compiled herself and structured almost like a symphony, critics praised Chan’s ability to transform the familiar into something both new and timeless. With the ability to “bring out the best in a top-rank orchestra” and a presence that is “as communicative as a dancer,” the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Chan shaped Tchaikovsky “as if she were born to conduct ballet,” making her performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic a can’t-miss occasion. Like Swan Lake , Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto exudes unapologetic Romantic indulgence—though with more of Liszt’s trademark showmanship and musical fireworks. Yefim Bronfman performed the concerto at age 15 in an audition that helped catapult his career. Since then, Bronfman has shown an uncommon attunement for the piece’s technical and artistic challenges, leading Bachtrack to say Liszt’s “manic, head-banging moments...were delivered with punch and flair, but it was the poetry [Bronfman] found in the concerto’s opening sections which made one listen with new ears.” The program begins with Dance Card , a new waltz-inspired piece by Donghoon Shin, the South Korean composer admired for his “taste for the esoteric—a love of labyrinths, literary puzzles, and contradictory aspects of the self” ( The Arts Desk ).

Program: Donghoon Shin: Dance Card; Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S. 125; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Suite from Swan Lake , Op. 20 Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Elim Chan (conductor); Yefim Bronfman (piano) Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake bursts with unflinching beauty, passion, and drama that is known the world over, but when Elim Chan performed a version of the suite in San Francisco last year she compiled herself and structured almost like a symphony, critics praised Chan’s ability to transform the familiar into something both new and timeless. With the ability to “bring out the best in a top-rank orchestra” and a presence that is “as communicative as a dancer,” the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Chan shaped Tchaikovsky “as if she were born to conduct ballet,” making her performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic a can’t-miss occasion. Like Swan Lake , Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto exudes unapologetic Romantic indulgence—though with more of Liszt’s trademark showmanship and musical fireworks. Yefim Bronfman performed the concerto at age 15 in an audition that helped catapult his career. Since then, Bronfman has shown an uncommon attunement for the piece’s technical and artistic challenges, leading Bachtrack to say Liszt’s “manic, head-banging moments...were delivered with punch and flair, but it was the poetry [Bronfman] found in the concerto’s opening sections which made one listen with new ears.” The program begins with Dance Card , a new waltz-inspired piece by Donghoon Shin, the South Korean composer admired for his “taste for the esoteric—a love of labyrinths, literary puzzles, and contradictory aspects of the self” ( The Arts Desk ).

Program: TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23; SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op . 93 Led by its dynamic Music Director Rafael Payare , the San Diego Symphony welcomes celebrated Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov for Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, a cornerstone of the Russian repertoire. Trifonov, who captured both First Prize and the Grand Prix at Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011, brings exceptional virtuosity, lyricism, and insight to this enduring masterpiece. The program concludes with Shostakovich’s powerful Symphony No. 10, a landmark of the Russian symphonic tradition completed in the aftermath of Stalin’s death in 1953. Widely regarded as one of the composer’s greatest achievements, the work bears witness to immense suffering under tyranny while reclaiming the voice of the individual, unfolding a gripping drama of fear, endurance, and defiance.

Program: Jean Sibelius: The Bard , Op. 64; Billy Childs: Diaspora : Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor); Steven Banks (saxophone) Known for constantly wrestling with his personal turmoil, Tchaikovsky described the driving force of his Fourth Symphony as Fate itself, “the fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness.” Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste leans into the composer’s anguish and desire to overcome with an exhilarating interpretation of this passionate symphony. By the finale, audiences will be convinced of Tchaikovsky’s belief that “joy is a simple but powerful force….To live is still possible.” At the center of the program is Diaspora , a saxophone concerto by Los Angeles-based composer Billy Childs that confronts history and identity. Using poetry by Maya Angelou, Claude McKay, and Nayyirah Waheed as guideposts for the music, Childs says Diaspora is “sifted through the prism of my own experience as a Black man in America.” The Seattle Times lauded Steven Banks, whom the work was written, for evoking both the idyllic and harrowing aspects of Diaspora and bringing “extraordinary presence and variety to the solo part, moving between soprano and alto saxophones as if an actor playing multiple roles.”

Program: Jean Sibelius: The Bard , Op. 64; Billy Childs: Diaspora : Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 Performers: Los Angeles Philharmonic; Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor); Steven Banks (saxophone) Known for constantly wrestling with his personal turmoil, Tchaikovsky described the driving force of his Fourth Symphony as Fate itself, “the fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness.” Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste leans into the composer’s anguish and desire to overcome with an exhilarating interpretation of this passionate symphony. By the finale, audiences will be convinced of Tchaikovsky’s belief that “joy is a simple but powerful force….To live is still possible.” At the center of the program is Diaspora , a saxophone concerto by Los Angeles-based composer Billy Childs that confronts history and identity. Using poetry by Maya Angelou, Claude McKay, and Nayyirah Waheed as guideposts for the music, Childs says Diaspora is “sifted through the prism of my own experience as a Black man in America.” The Seattle Times lauded Steven Banks, whom the work was written, for evoking both the idyllic and harrowing aspects of Diaspora and bringing “extraordinary presence and variety to the solo part, moving between soprano and alto saxophones as if an actor playing multiple roles.”