Name: Great Romantics
Start: 2023-09-23T19:30:00
Location: Walton Arts Center

Symphony of Northwest Arkansas

Leonard Bernstein is arguably one of the most famous musicians of the 20th Century, and his musical West Side Story is a brash and daring retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet — a heart-on-your-sleeve display of bravado, love, lust, and untimely death — as well as a cry out on behalf of the Puerto Ricans and communities that were being bulldozed out of their homes and neighborhoods as Lincoln Center rose up in New York City in the 1960s. In a very different display of the idea of ‘romantics,’ we will also perform the quintessential Romantic composer Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2. Written in 1906, its bold and unabashed emotional music grips our hearts, minds, and bodies just as surely as it did over a century ago at its premiere. This emotionally gripping program is a wonderful way to commence our season and showcase our orchestra’s expressive power.