Name: California Symphony: Brahms Obsessions
Start: 2024-05-05T16:00:00
Location: Lesher Center for the Arts

Robert Edward Thies

New Music USA

In the California Symphony’s season finale, Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera reunites the music of Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann. Described by The New York Times as “music’s unsung renaissance woman,” Clara Schumann was an acclaimed composer and pianist in the 1800s. In this concert, her only surviving piano concerto is performed by featured soloist Robert Thies, alongside Brahms’ brilliant first symphony. Both the object of Brahms’ affections, Clara Schumann, and his mountainous task of succeeding Beethoven’s symphonic legacy is showcased in the California Symphony’s program titled Brahms Obsessions. The music of Brahms and Clara Schumann are accompanied by a world premiere of California Symphony Resident Composer Saad Haddad’s newest work. Haddad’s music explores the relationship between the West and the East by translating traditional Arab instruments to a Western symphonic context.