Asher Fisch Conductor
Louis Lortie Piano

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Richard Strauss Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24 (Death and Transfiguration)
Wagner Overture to Tannhäuser, WWV 70

The rich, lush sounds of three great Romantic composers feature in this concert conducted by Asher Fisch, principal conductor of West Australian Symphony Orchestra and former chief conductor of Vienna Volksoper.

Rachmaninov’s famous Second Piano Concerto premiered with the composer as soloist. The concerto was dedicated to the doctor who treated Rachmaninov through his clinical depression. The second theme of the Allegro scherzando provides the basis for Frank Sinatra’s 1945 hit song Full Moon and Empty Arms. French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie is a world renowned soloist who tours a vast repertoire internationally. His versatility as a performer will be well suited to Rachmaninov’s athletic piano concerto.

Richard Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) is a tone poem depicting a dying artist reflecting on his life. At the end, the moment of death is a sweeping upward glissando towards heaven. On his deathbed, Strauss said, “dying is just as I composed it in Death and Transfiguration.”

Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser, about a troubadour who becomes the lover of the goddess Venus, tells a story of lust, love, and redemption. The overture contains many of the opera’s important themes.