With these brilliant composers, every musical idea is a treasure box of inspiration. In Brahms’ Third Symphony, the care and attention lavished on each step and leap magnifies small gestures into momentous statements. Sofia Gubaidulina’s spiritual and resonant Offertorium has become a contemporary classic and now we get to hear why it has made such an impact. When it comes to finding new life within old music, Bach lights the way as always, as heard in his glorious harmonization of a traditional hymn. 
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Thursday, 17 January, 2019 7:30PM
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Friday, 18 January, 2019 8:00PM
Surprises abound when thoughtful musicians indulge in a bit of mischief and mayhem! The first symphony that Shostakovich composed as a frisky teenager crackles with dark humor and cheeky irony. Pianist Jonathan Biss, a virtuoso of the highest order, approaches his craft with a scholar’s curiosity and a raconteur’s knack for captivating the minds and ears of his audience. He asked Caroline Shaw, the multi-talented composer and performer who became the youngest ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013, to compose this concerto as a response to Beethoven, an endeavor that calls for a healthy balance of sanctity and whimsy.
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Thursday, 31 January, 2019 7:30PM
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Friday, 1 February, 2019 12:00PM
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Saturday, 2 February, 2019 8:00PM
In the last major work of his life, Prokofiev filled his Seventh Symphony with music of disarming innocence and simplicity. He began composing it for a children’s radio program, and even as it expanded into a full-throated symphony it retained a childlike sense of wonder. Sibelius, the proud son of Finland, channeled his austere Nordic sensibilities into his Violin Concerto, which spans from an icy tremble to a pounding dance once dubbed the “polonaise for polar bears.” Don’t miss the return of violinist Aleksey Semenenko, who “played with deep sensitivity and chamber-like focus” in his last Seattle Symphony appearance (The Seattle Times).
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Thursday, 14 February, 2019 7:30PM
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Saturday, 16 February, 2019 8:00PM
One of the greatest artists of our time, beloved to Seattle audiences for his soulful recitals, returns to make his debut in front of the orchestra. Leading from the keyboard, Sir András Schiff seeks the most honest and personal path through Beethoven’s soul-searching Piano Concerto No. 4. There may be no musician alive who digs deeper to discover the music at hand, as evidenced by his encyclopedic recordings of Beethoven’s concertos and sonatas. When Schiff plays Bach’s sparkling Piano Concerto No. 3, he draws on a routine that, for more than 50 years, has found him starting each day at the keyboard playing an hour or more of Bach. The Hungarian-born Schiff has always been a leading interpreter of his countryman Bartók; now he ascends from the keyboard to the conductor’s podium for the vibrant Concerto for Orchestra.
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Thursday, 28 February, 2019 7:30PM
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Sunday, 3 March, 2019 2:00PM
When Joshua Bell pours his heart through his fingers and into his Stradivarius, every note feels like a private confession from him to you. He applies that poetic touch to the timeless elegance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, an understated masterpiece that demands total transparency and vulnerability from the soloist and orchestra alike. Haydn’s Symphony No. 102, composed for adoring fans in London, stands as a worldly, confident dispatch from a master at his absolute peak. Such pristine works might be daunting companions for most living composers, but the supple lyricism of Hava places Lotta Wennäkoski of Finland within that same class of fine-grained, exacting craft.
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Thursday, 7 March, 2019 7:30PM
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Friday, 8 March, 2019 8:00PM
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Saturday, 9 March, 2019 8:00PM
