Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Concerts in SoCal

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 Los Angeles-based composer and six-time Grammy winner 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 Los Angeles-based composer and six-time Grammy winner 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.”