Name: TCHAIKOVSKY'S "PATHÉTIQUE"
Start: 2025-04-04T20:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-04-04T22:00:00-05:00
Location: Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

$TCHAIKOVSKY'S "PATH\u00c9TIQUE"$

NEW! FRIDAY SYMPHONIC PIAZZA SERIES
Matthias Pintscher, music director and conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

JOAN MAGRANÉ FIGUERA (Kansas City Symphony commission and World Premiere)
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Concerto No. 5 in F Major for Piano and Orchestra, “Egyptian”
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, “Pathétique”

Music Director Matthias Pintscher is joined by visionary pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in this concert that traverses the world. The program even begins with a world premiere — a new piece commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony from Catalan composer Jan Magrané Figuera. Figuera’s music is a deep exploration of the nature of sound, searching for new shades of tone colors in a microcosmic interior world. Intensely focused and yet remarkably free, his music unfolds organically.

A renowned virtuoso, Thibaudet debuts with the Symphony in a tour de force: Saint-Saën’s remarkable Piano Concerto No. 5, sometimes called “Egyptian” for its exotic sounds — and the fact that Saint-Saëns composed it while wintering in Egypt. Superbly crafted, the concerto places extreme technical demands on the pianist due to its breathtaking blizzard of notes cloaked in sophisticated melodic garb. You’ll love the rich harmonies and beguiling romantic themes.

Closing the program, you’ll luxuriate in the rich sound of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6. The unabashed brilliance of Tchaikovsky’s music will have you cheering and the sheer emotion of the work’s last movement will touch your very soul.