Michael Stern, conductor

Yefim Bronfman, piano

GABRIELA ORTIZ  Kauyumari

BÉLA BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

JOHANNES BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major

Every concert is a celebration of Michael Stern’s visionary artistic leadership this year, his final season as music director. He has long championed music of our time so it is a special pleasure to feature Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari, composed in 2021. Ortiz notes that “music has the power to grant us access to the intangible, healing our wounds and binding us to what can only be expressed through sound.” A stunning masterpiece, Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is one of the greatest works of the 20th century. By turns playful, daring, mystical and brassy, this Concerto will wow you with its inventiveness and virtuosic displays. Be ready to be amazed. A longtime friend of Maestro Stern and the Symphony, pianist Yefim Bronfman plays with extraordinary technical prowess and remarkable creativity. He’s a perfect match for Johannes Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, a tour de force for soloist and orchestra alike. From intimate solo moments to thunderous outbursts — and everything in between — you’ll be swept along on waves of elegant melody.