Alexandre Moutouzkine
“Our third classical concert of the season will be powerful and masterful, with all the grandeur that a symphonic orchestra can display,” said Kelly Ruggirello, executive director of the Long Beach Symphony Association. “This is a night of celebration of the music, of the orchestra, and of our Maestro Diemecke.”
Saturday’s concert will begin with a celebration of British composer Benjamin Britten’s 100th anniversary, with a performance of his Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra based on a theme from Henry Purcell. The nature of the concerto requires the fullest of symphonic orchestras and was intended to teach young people the sounds of the instruments and how they work together in a grand manner. The piece currently serves as the foundation for Long Beach Symphony’s long-standing, free education program, the Symphony Concerts for Young People.
The concert program will feature a piano solo by guest artist Alexandre Moutouzkine, a Russian pianist who is internationally acclaimed on concert stages throughout Europe and the U.S. Moutouzkine will perform Strauss’s Burleske.
In the second half of the concert, Diemecke will conduct Revueltas’ Noche de los Mayas, an orchestral tour-de-force that was commissioned in 1939 for Chano Urueta’s film of the same name. Some 20 years after the composer’s death, his compatriot José Ives Limantour edited portions of it to form the concert suite. A stunning cadenza for the expanded percussion in the final movement was added about 15 years ago by Diemecke, who at the time was the conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México. It is the Diemecke version that is widely played on concert stages today, according to LBSO.
For more information about the works, ticket holders may attend a 7pm pre-concert talk by KUSC’s Rich Capparela.
Tickets start at $21; student tickets are available for $10. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit lbso.org or call (562) 436-3203 ext. 232.
