Sarah Ioannides, conductor
Pallavi Mahidhara, piano
Symphony Tacoma Voices (Geoffrey Boers, director)

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
WORLD PREMIERE David Ludwig: Bleeding Pines
Beethoven: Fantasy for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra “Choral Fantasy”

LUDWIG AND BEETHOVEN. This celebration of piano and chorus features two Beethoven favorites and the world premiere of David Ludwig’s The Bleeding Pines. Despite being given the esteemed review as “the most admirable, singular, artistic and complex Beethoven concerto ever” after its premiere, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 was not performed again until it was revived by Felix Mendelssohn in 1836. The Bleeding Pines is an oratorio for singers, chorus, and orchestra based on a play by Ray Owen that tells the story of conservationist Helen Boyd Dull, who in 1904 saved an ancient stand of longleaf pines. Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy” is based on his 1797 song Gegenliebe and concludes with a thrilling chorus melody which is a clear foreshadowing to the famed Ode to Joy melody written 16 years later.