R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9

ALEKSANDRA KASMAN piano
NEAL GITTLEMAN conductor
DAYTON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Benjamin and Marian Schuster Endowed Young Classical Artist:  Aleksandra Kasman

In her DPO debut Aleksandra Kasman, a 2019-20 Young Artist in Residence of NPR’s Performance Today, solos in Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, whose titanic technical demands have tested the mettle of performers and thrilled audiences for more than a century. Its quiet start leads into an amazing unleashing of notes (some 30,000 in all!) and hurtles to a jaw-dropping conclusion. The USSR was “holding its breath,” awaiting Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony, expecting a celebration of gargantuan proportions of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany and a glorification of Stalin. (Isn’t that what a Ninth Symphony is supposed to be?) Instead, it’s a poke in the tyrant’s eye. Happy April Fool’s Day, Joseph! Classical music’s favorite trickster, Till Eulenspiegel, sets the stage for our entertainment.