Season opening concert featuring pianist Alexander Toradze performing Tchaikovsky’s popular Piano Concerto No. 1 and Symphonie fantastique conducted by Principal Guest Conductor, Yan Pascal Tortelier

Brahms’ 3rd Symphony and Hungarian Dances conducted by Endowed Guest Conductor, Marek Janowski

Leonidas Kavakos is featured in Prokofiev’s fiery Violin Concerto No. 2

Pinchas Zukerman conducts an all Mozart concert

September 30, 2007

Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor
Alexander Toradze, piano

CORIGLIANO: Promenade Overture
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique

Tchaikovsky’s romantic and show-stopping Piano Concerto No. 1 with Russian pianist Toradze and Berlioz’s sensual musical fantasy provide a grand beginning to the season.

November 11, 2007

Marek Janowski, conductor
Nikolai Lugansky, piano

BRAHMS: Symphony No. 3
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4
BRAHMS: Hungarian Dances Nos. 20 (orch. Dvorák), 10, 3, 1 (orch. Brahms)

Enjoy the genius of Brahms with his Symphony No. 3 and delightful Hungarian Dances. The music of Brahms’ idol, Beethoven, is featured with his Piano Concerto No.4, perhaps the most sublime of Beethoven’s five piano concertos.

December 9, 2007

Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Anne Martindale Williams, cello

CORIGLIANO: Phantasmagoria
ELGAR: Cello Concerto
MOZART: Symphony No. 39

PSO Principal Cellist Anne Martindale Williams is featured in Elgar’s dramatic concerto and Sir Andrew Davis leads Mozart’s majestic Symphony No. 39.

March 9, 2008

André Previn, conductor
Gretchen Van Hoesen, harp

COPLAND: Appalachian Spring Suite
PREVIN: Harp Concerto
(PSO commission & world premiere)
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 4

Previn brings his own Harp Concerto written for the PSO’s Gretchen Van Hoesen, and the concert includes beloved music of Copland and Beethoven’s moving Symphony No. 4.

April 20, 2008

Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Leonidas Kavakos, violin

CORIGLIANO: Tournaments Overture
PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto No. 2
Mystery Piece
ELGAR: Enigma Variations

The brilliant Kavakos performs Prokofiev’s fiery second concerto. Sir Andrew Davis conducts Elgar’s Enigma Variations…fourteen charming “musical portraits” of the composer’s friends.

June 1, 2008

Pinchas Zukerman, conductor and violin
Benjamin Hochman, piano

MOZART: Overture to Così fan tutte
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major
MOZART: Serenade No. 7, “Haffner”

In an all-Mozart program Pinchas Zukerman conducts and performs four movements from the celebratory “Haffner” Serenade and Benjamin Hochman plays his exquisite Piano Concerto No. 17.

June 15, 2008

Sir Andrew Davis, conductor
Nicole Cabell, soprano
Lucas Meachem, baritone
Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh
Betsy Burleigh, director

BRAHMS: A German Requiem

Brahms’ choral masterpiece is a Requiem for all humanity. This magnificent work led by Sir Andrew Davis brings a stirring and emotional close to the season.