Herbert Blomstedt Conductor
Emanuel Ax Piano
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 18
Bruckner Symphony No. 4 (“Romantic”)
Program Notes
The incomparable Emanuel Ax takes center stage for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18, a dazzling work Mozart most likely composed for Maria Theresa von Paradis, a composer, singer, and pianist who had been blind since childhood. Bruckner's Fourth Symphony (“Romantic”), one of the composer’s most popular works, delights audiences with allusions to the days of knights, the sound of hunting horns, and adventures in a sprawling countryside. Conductor Herbert Blomstedt leads this buoyant pairing of performances on the doorstep of springtime in Philadelphia.