Starting Sunday February 9 at 3pm and each following Sunday (repeated the following Thursday at 9pm), AZPM’s Classical 90.5 presents on its Community Concerts series the TSO’s Classic and Masterworks concerts from the 2023-24 season. Each program in the 13-week series features commentary from Music Director José Luis Gomez. The series is a partnership between the TSO and AZPM with generous support in memory of James Glasser.
- Sunday February 9 and Thursday February 13: Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
The 2023–24 season opens in grand style with Liszt’s fanciful, flashy Piano Concerto No. 1, the perfect showcase for the electrifying Zee Zee, and Mussorgsky’s masterpiece Pictures at an Exhibition, depicted in Ravel’s evocative orchestrations. Maestro Gomez’s fascinating exploration of the late Robert Muczynski’s music continues with the first-ever performance of Galena: A Town, a tribute to the historic city in the composer’s native Illinois. - Sunday February 16 and Thursday February 20: Copland’s Appalachian Spring
Copland’s evocative Appalachian Spring, originally written for the Martha Graham Dance Company, has become an American classic. It’s the climax of this Pan-American program that includes Spanish composer Maria Teresa Prieto’s Chichén Itzá, inspired by the Mayan ruins in Mexico, and a suite of music from Jennifer Higdon’s opera Cold Mountain, specially co-commissioned by the TSO. - Sunday February 23 and Thursday February 27: Respighi’s Pines and Fountains of Rome
One of the finest cellists of our time, Johannes Moser makes his TSO debut with a concerto written for the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich. Based on Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal, each movement of this dramatic piece is inspired by a different poem. Framing the concerto are Valerie Coleman’s anthem for unity, Umoja, and Respighi’s hot-blooded, dazzling tone poems, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, sure to lift the roof off the Music Hall! - Sunday March 2 and Thursday March 6: Mainly Mozart
2023–24 Artists in Residence Ilmar Gavilán and Jaime Amador, from the innovative Harlem Quartet, are the soloists in Mozart’s sublime Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola. Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, also known as the St. Anthony Variations, open a program that concludes with the first of Mozart’s last three great symphonies, No. 39. A feast for the classical lover! - Sunday, March 9 & Thursday, March 13: Ravel and Dvořák
A TSO favorite, Keitaro Harada returns to conduct his first Classic series concert with Dvořák’s Bohemian-inspired lyrical Symphony No. 8. The jazz-inflected first half opens with Frank Ticheli’s Blue Shades before rising star pianist David Fung joins the TSO for the genius of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. - Sunday, March 16 & Thursday, March 2: Scottish Fantasy
Audience favorite Mei-Ann Chen leads the TSO in an exploration of all things Scottish. Mendelssohn conjures up the romantic landscapes of Scotland’s beautiful scenery, and Peter Maxwell Davies’ An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise brings to life a tradition that includes a very special surprise! Virtuosic violinist Stefan Jackiw shows his incredible artistry in Bruch’s popular Scottish Fantasy. - Sunday, March 23 & Thursday, March 27: Zhang Plays Mendelssohn
Dean Zhang, TSO’s exciting principal keyboard, makes his solo debut in one of the first concertos of the Romantic era. And it was Mendelssohn the conductor who led the first performance of his colleague Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, an astonishing work given the mental struggles that afflicted the composer. Maestro Gomez was so impressed by Chelsea Komschlies’ A Hidden Sun Rises, first heard at the TSO during the 2022 EarShot readings, that he immediately wanted to introduce this short work to a wider audience. - Sunday, March 30 & Thursday, April 3: Ravel and Bernstein
José Luis Gomez takes us on a non-stop orchestral tour of music from the Americas—Venezuela, Mexico and the USA. - Sunday, April 6 & Thursday, April 10: Haydn’s Symphony No. 104
The TSO’s principal trumpet Hayato Tanaka takes center stage for Eino Tamberg’s virtuosic concerto, one of the best-loved works by the Estonian composer. Maestro Gomez introduces the Serenata by the legendary 19th-century Venezuelan pianist/composer Teresa Carreño, for whom the home of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra is named, and concludes with the last of Haydn’s 12 London symphonies, indeed his final and arguably greatest symphonic statement, No. 104. - Sunday, April 13 & Thursday, April 17: Rachmaninoff’s Second
Buoyed by the success of his Piano Concerto No. 2, Rachmaninoff entered the happiest and most productive period of his personal and professional life. The result was the sweeping lyrical romanticism of his Second Symphony, a superb showcase for the TSO. A hip-swinging Conga from Mexico’s leading composer, Arturo Márquez, is followed by the Violin Concerto No. 1 of Florence Price, a mid-20th century African-American composer only now receiving the recognition her music richly deserves. - Sunday, April 20 & Thursday, April 24: Beethoven’s Fourth
Guest conductor François Lopez-Ferrer makes his TSO debut in a Latin-themed first half full of infectious rhythms and melodies: Falla’s vibrant Three-Cornered Hat Suite No. 1 from the comic ballet, and the Argentine Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes. The Masterworks Series concludes with Beethoven’s gem of a Fourth Symphony. - Sunday, April 27 & Thursday, May 1: Verdi’s Requiem
One of the pinnacles of the orchestral-choral repertoire, Verdi’s Requiem is infrequently presented because of its large forces. When it does come around, performances are always an event, especially with this hand-picked quartet of international soloists and the uplifting massed voices of the TSO Chorus. These concerts mark the work’s 150th anniversary, and who better than Maestro Gomez to lead such a sonic masterpiece. - Sunday, May 4 & Thursday, May 8: Holst’s Planets
What better way to close the season than hearing the full expressive might of the TSO in Holst’s technicolor orchestral masterpiece, The Planets, which became an inspiration for John Williams’ movie scores. Maestro Gomez navigates the stormy seas of Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and introduces Daniel Asia’s powerful At the Far Edge in celebration of the Tucson composer’s 70th birthday.