NSO: Leonard Slatkin at 80

National Symphony Orchestra  
Leonard Slatkin conductor
Hugh Tinney piano 
 
Daniel Slatkin Voyager 130 [World Premiere]
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4
Brahms Symphony No. 3

The National Symphony Orchestra welcomes back internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin to celebrate his 80th birthday. 

Beethoven’s dramatic Fourth Piano Concerto is the rich centrepiece alongside Brahms’s mellow but majestic Third Symphony.

The World Premiere of Voyager 130 by Slatkin’s son, Daniel, tributes humanity’s greatest adventure. Inspired by Beethoven’s 13th String Quartet, it ‘tells the story of Voyager’s journey through space, with the Cavatina providing thematic material.’

Did you know?

Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto was the last to be performed by him in public.

Taking the soloist-versus-orchestra model to extremes, it pits piano against ensemble in a take-no-prisoners contest of wills that happily ends in accord.

The most lyrical and crafted of Brahms’s symphonies, the Third is marked by free-flowing strings and evocative autumnal woodwind passages. Each of its four movements, even the turbulent finale, end in gentle accord.

Daniel Slatkin’s grandfather was the violinist and conductor Felix Slatkin, founder of the Hollywood String Quartet and concertmaster of the 20th Century Fox Orchestra.

Listen out for…

The vital interplay between piano and orchestra in Beethoven’s middle movement, a tortured soul at its most tender and magical.

The running motif of F-Aflat-F in Brahms’ Third Symphony is mimicking his own mantra: ‘frei aber froh’ (‘free but happy’)