Enjoy a romantic Valentine’s outing with The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. On Saturday, Feb. 12 and Valentine’s Day Monday, Feb. 14, Maestro Bramwell Tovey will conduct the VSO in Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty: Waltz, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World’.
Both evenings will be a celebration of the most romantic music ever written. Pianist Sara Davis Buechner will perform Rachmaninoff’s piece, considered to be the most famous and beloved piano concerto ever written! This rich, beautiful, and melodic piece is a perfect way to share Valentine’s Day with a loved one or one you’re hoping to fall in love with.
Tchaikovsky set Charles Perrault’s famous fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, to music in 1890. Sleeping Beauty’s Waltz is a portion taken from the ballet.
Sergei Rachmaninoff was the last of the great Russian Romantics and one of the greatest pianists of his time. His Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor is one of the most cherished, performed, and recorded piano pieces of any kind. Rachmaninoff performed it for the first time in 1909 with the Moscow Philharmonic.
Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’ can be described as bold, complex, and exciting, written while the composer was living in New York. As Dvořák found inspiration in African-American folk songs and rhythms, much of the spirit of these sounds can be found in this symphony.
Conductor and Music Director Bramwell Tovey is known around the globe for his artistic depth and charismatic personality on the podium. Tovey is also a composer and pianist and served as former music director of both the Luxembourg Philharmonic and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras.
Tovey joined the VSO in 2000. He’s a Grammy and Juno Award winner and frequently collaborates with the Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras, to name a few.
Sara Davis Buechner has a repertoire of close to 100 piano concertos! She has won prizes at the world’s most prestigious international piano competitions. She’s appeared with countless orchestras and equally important, has given premières of important new music and film scores by Larry Bell, Pierre Charvet, Richard Danielpour, Dick Hyman and Henry Martin.
In 2003, she was appointed UBC’s Assistant Professor of Piano. She formerly served as faculty member of New York University, and has presented lectures and masterclasses from the Royal Academy in London to the Juilliard School to the Kobe-Yamate Gakuen in Osaka, Japan.
Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 604.876.3434.
