Beethoven’s “Triple” Concerto
featuring conductor and pianist Andrew Litton, Christine Lamprea, and the CSO’s own Yuriy Bekker
Andrew Litton, Music Director of the New York City Ballet, GRAMMY Award winner, and accomplished pianist, will be conducting from the keyboard while performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. Though the violin-cello-piano combination is often heard in chamber music ensembles, it is much rarer as a trio of three soloists with orchestra. The concerto will feature Cellist and 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Winner, Christine Lamprea, and the CSO’s Concertmaster, Yuriy Bekker. Litton, Lamprea, and Bekker will shine in one of Beethoven’s most soulful, challenging, and charming concertos.
Arguably the most significant Soviet-era composer of the last century, Dmitri Shostakovich was condemned and stifled during the Stalin era. Though it is a mystery to pinpoint exactly when his Tenth Symphony was written (between 1946-1953), it is a work of masterful emotional outpouring likely inspired by this suffering. Like his predecessor Tchaikovsky, the composer employed waltzes and militaristic drums intermingled with the symphony’s musical themes and motifs to convey dramatic momentum, heart-wrenching longing, and slow despair. It’s not all doom and gloom, however; the fourth movement—after a final frenzied return of anguish—ushers in a promising moment of triumph and victorious release.
About the Conductor
“Andrew Litton, Tuesday’s conductor and the company’s music director, isn’t invariably a natural accompanist. Mr. Litton keeps raising the City Ballet’s orchestral playing. Dance and music meet as shining equals.”
— Alastair Macaulay, New York Times
CSO Concertmaster, Yuriy Bekker, plays Movement 1 of the Bruch Violin Concerto.
“Andrew Litton, better known as a conductor, happens to be a first-rate pianist. He is the anchor in a performance of the Brahms Trio that is at once poetic and ebullient, mournful and rollicking. It would be easy for musicians to take such a familiar piece for granted, but not these players. They illuminate the work’s varied moods through subtle shadings and supple phrasing, and they give the last movement’s hunting activity a joyous ride. Inspired, really.”
— Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone
