Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/17/2023
2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Location
Lesher Center for the Arts
Categories
The Diablo Symphony is joined by pianist Randall Benway on September 17 for Beethoven’s lyrical Piano Concerto No. 4, presented at 2:00 p.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. The program also includes Jean Sibelius’s orchestral tone poem “Finlandia,” written in 1899 for a protest against Russian censorship, and his Symphony No. 1, premiered in Helsinki in 1899. The piano solo that opens the concerto, the solitary clarinet and timpani passage that opens the symphony, and the serene central melody in “Finlandia” (later adopted for the hymn “Be Still My Soul”) characterize a program that brings innovation, compelling rhythms, and strikingly beautiful melodies to the stage. Benway, a longtime Lafayette resident and assistant director of the Blackhawk Chorus before his move to Olympia, Washington, has performed extensively in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Cost: Adults, $40; Youth, $10; children 12 and under, free (but need a ticket); senior group discount, $30 each for groups of 10 or more seniors. Call the Lesher Center Box office at 925-943-7469, or go to the DSO’s website at https://www.diablosymphony.org/events/beethoven-with-benway/. Tickets will also be available at the door.
The concert launches the DSO’s very affordable 2023-24 season, which also features local favorites Mads Tolling, violin, Greg Brown, saxophone; and Lafayette-based WomenSing. in concerts offering joy-filled music—including three imaginative new works by women—ranging from Beethoven to jazz. And the DSO itself tackles new heights, bringing Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring to Walnut Creek. Visit the DSO website at www.diablosymphony.org for season details.
Season tickets are $175 for adults and $50 for youth; season tickets for children 12 and under are free, but are needed to reserve the desired seats. Call the Lesher Center box office or visit the DSO’s website at https://www.diablosymphony.org/2023-2024-season-joy-beauty-and-all-that-jazz/.
