Concertos for One and All

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Alyssa Wang, conductor

Steven Copes, violin

PROGRAM

BRAHMS Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 77

Evan ZIPORYN Frog's Eye

Grazyna BACEWICZ Concerto for String Orchestra

Pro Arte welcomes conductor Alyssa Wang and violinist Steven Copes, Concertmaster of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, for a concert of riveting works, both warmly familiar and boldly inventive.  In Frog’s Eye, the contemporary composer Evan Ziporyn meticulously layers musical lines to open a vista bustling with life.  The Concerto for string orchestra by the twentieth-century Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz is a carefully crafted work of breathtaking force.  Johannes Brahms composed his majestic Violin Concerto for the violinist Joseph Joachim, a close friend and collaborator.  Throughout the stately opening movement, the lyrical Adagio, and the fiery finale, Brahms’s music is characteristically expressive, heartfelt, and dramatic.