Palm Beach Symphony to open 50th anniversary season with world premiere

Continuing with its series of new works composed specifically for the ensemble, the Palm Beach Symphony opens its 50th anniversary season Sunday with a world premiere piece by prominent composer Bright Sheng.

Sheng’s new work, "Triumph of Humanity," will be heard on a program that also features the Piano Concerto No. 2 of Johannes Brahms, played by the eminent Israeli-American pianist Yefim Bronfman. Music director Gerard Schwarz also has scheduled a suite of music from Richard Strauss’ opera "Der Rosenkavalier," as well Sheng’s arrangement of a late piano piece by Brahms, the Intermezzo (Op. 118, No. 2).

“Bright Sheng is one of the most gifted composers alive today,” Schwarz said in a prepared statement. “To preface this world premiere, we will perform his arrangement, ‘Black Swan,’ which is inspired by one of the most beautiful works for piano one has ever heard … Although I think his arrangement is even more exquisite.”

Sheng, a native of Shanghai who survived the Cultural Revolution and came to the United States in 1982, has been a professor of composition at the University of Michigan since 1995. Winner of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2001, Sheng’s music bridges Eastern and Western styles in a framework that melds the dissonant with the lyrical.

The work was commissioned by Paul du Quenoy, head of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute, and his wife Irina. Du Quenoy, a writer, critic and publisher, also won the chance in a symphony fundraising auction to conduct the orchestra in the national anthem at the beginning of Sunday’s concert.

Bronfman has had a busy international career for decades, and specializes in the big concertos of the Romantic era; this year he has played both the Brahms concertos, the Schumann concerto, the Liszt Second Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 in concerts in the United States, Europe and Japan.

“He and I have known each other for 50 years, and I’m always amazed at what a great artist he is,” Schwarz said of Bronfman, adding that he is "one of the great pianists before the public today, and a dear friend."

“Being able to collaborate with him to open this anniversary season is extremely meaningful for us,” he said.

Sunday’s concert is set for 3 p.m. at Dreyfoos Hall in the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Tickets range from $25 to $95 and can be bought by visiting www.kravis.org or the Palm Beach Symphony Box Office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays at 400 Hibiscus St., Suite 100, in West Palm Beach. Patrons can also call the orchestra box office at 561-281-0145 or the Kravis Center at 561-832-7469.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Bright Sheng commission featured on Palm Beach Symphony opener