Sir Antonio Pappano conducts Kendall, Liszt, and Strauss with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Sir Antonio Pappano, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Hannah KENDALL O flower of fire (American premiere)
LISZT Piano Concerto No. 2
STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet brings dazzling elegance to Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which distills the turbulent essence of Romanticism. Italian-British conductor Antonio Pappano also leads two works asking deep questions of humanity while expanding the range of the orchestra. Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, with its immediately recognizable opening “sunrise,” is a musical response to Friedrich Nietzsche’s metaphysical novel of the same name. Hannah Kendall uses unusual orchestral techniques and music boxes in her recent O flower of fire, inspired by the work of Guyanese-British poet Martin Carter.