Philip Glass "Violin Concerto" & "West Side Story"

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Image courtesy of Palau de la Musica

The charismatic violinist Leticia Moreno returns to the Franz Schubert Philharmonic season to perform Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1, a work of melodic depth and profound emotional force. This mesmerizing concerto, which captivated audiences from its premiere, established Glass as one of the most influential composers in contemporary music.

In the second part, maestro Tomàs Grau conducts the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, a work filled with energy and refinement.

When Leonard Bernstein was asked whether West Side Story was an opera or a musical, he replied that the question did not concern him; what mattered most was that the music and the story resonated with audiences. Over the years, the score became the most performed American work in the world. The combination of classical musical techniques with urban rhythms proved remarkably effective, and several of its numbers achieved unprecedented popularity.

Philip Glass popularized the concept of minimalist music, but when he composed his Violin Concerto, he stated that he could not speculate: “I want it to sound the way my father, a music lover who filled concert halls, would have liked it.” He premiered the concerto forty years ago, and it became his most popular work.

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