At the Met: Golden Age of Vienna

Jan 2, 2006

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 326-3136

SPOKANE: The Spokane Symphony and Associate Conductor Morihiko Nakahara welcome listeners to the Golden Age of Vienna on Sunday, Jan. 8 at 3 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Metropolitan Performing Arts Center with guest artist, pianist Hsia-Jung Chang. The Spokane Symphony musicians will leave their tuxes at home and join Maestro Nakahara to make the music come alive in a casual atmosphere.

Vienna was the undisputed center of the Classical music tradition in the second half of the 18th Century. During this Golden Age, it was home to the finest composers ever: Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, and Schubert. The concert will show the richness and variety of the Viennese Classical style. The evening begins with Beethoven's demonstration of that style in the Prometheus Overture.

Mozart's C Major Piano Concerto will celebrate the return of pianist Hsia-Jung Chang who grew up in Spokane and has been hailed by New York critics as a distinctive and important new voice in the annals of pianism. A native of Taiwan, Chang has premiered and commissioned numerous works by composers in the United States and Scandinavia. She received a Bachelors and Masters degree in Piano Performance from the University of Houston and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music.

Her CD, which will be available at the concert, has been showcased in the Piano Bench Hour on KPBX. In addition to giving solo and chamber music concerts, Chang has been guest lecturer/performer at the Manhattan School of Music, Prince George's Community College, College of the Mainland, Friends University, the Shengyang, and Dong Bei University of China.

Rooted in the German song tradition and standing on the doorway to Romanticism, Schubert's Fifth Symphony is a great example of a song without words


CALENDAR LISTING:
At the Met: Golden Age of Vienna, Sunday, Jan. 8, at 3 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Met featuring pianist Hsia-Jung Chang. Tickets are $19, $21, & $25; Call the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office at (509) 624-1200; tickets are also available, with service charges, through TicketsWest at 325-SEAT, 1-800-325-SEAT and at www.spokanesymphony.org.