JUANJO MENA conducts
JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET piano

GERSHWIN Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
BARTÓK The Wooden Prince
RAVEL Boléro 

Gershwin’s Concerto in F is a concert favorite that speaks in America’s musical vernacular— jazz — and is the perfect vehicle for the showstopping talents of Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Internationally renowned conductor Juanjo Mena returns to lead the DSO’s first-ever performance of Bartók’s The Wooden Prince, the stuff of fairytale denizens rendered through lyrical, sensuous and folksong-like music. The iconic Boléro: two short measures, repeated over a hypnotic, non-stop snare-drum beat, start softly, then increase in intensity, as combinations of instruments create ever richer sonorities and reach a spinetingling climax.