You Belong

Paolo Bortolameolli, guest conductor

Zhu Wang, piano (Underwritten by the Almy Legacy Fund)

MIGUEL FARÍAS Retratos Australes

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Piano Concerto No. 21

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 7

Chilean-Italian conductor Paolo Bortolameolli returns to Kansas City to lead the Symphony in a marvelously captivating program.  To open the concert, Chilean composer Miguel Farías offers his portrait of the southern hemisphere in Retratos Australes, a work brimming with restless energy, hypnotic phrases, and kaleidoscopic orchestral colors. Our longtime partnership with the famous Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (Michael Stern is an alumnus, after all) brings amazingly talented students or recent grads to Kansas City for solo appearances, helping to launch their careers and allowing us to hear tomorrow’s stars today. A native of Hunan, China, pianist Zhu Wang has already performed all over the world, winning prizes and thrilling audiences with his lyrical playing. His sensitive interpretation of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 will delight you, especially in the famous slow movement. (Film buffs will know that it was featured in the 1967 Swedish film “Elvira Madigan.”) Antonín Dvořák composed some of the best symphonic music ever written. With its impassioned melodies and brooding atmosphere, Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony transits the full expanse of emotions. From soul-searching angst to sun-dappled phrases that dance joyfully, this is music that affirms a zest for life.