Description:

Prokofiev left the original manuscript of his Second Piano Concerto behind when he fled St. Petersburg for Paris in 1918, so he had to recompose it from memory in 1923. Naturally he made it more difficult! Maestro Dutoit is joined by 2006 Gilmore Young Artist Yuja Wang, a 2008 Curtis Institute graduate and one of today's most charismatic pianists, in her Philadelphia Orchestra subscription debut. The concert opens with Barber's poignant Adagio for Strings. Rounding out the program is Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, a hallucinogenic depiction of an opium trip using some of the most brilliant images and colors in the entire symphonic repertoire. It is part of a multi-season focus on the music of France's greatest Romantic composer.