Chopin in Paris

A brilliant piano concerto and a symphony that used to be bigger than any of Beethoven’s nine

What’s Interesting About This Concert

  • French Caribbean composer Joseph Bologne, also known as Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was born in 1745 in the French colony of Guadaloupe to a wealthy white plantation owner and enslaved mother. Sent to Paris at 13 to gain an education, Bologne became a master swordsman, renowned violinist, and accomplished composer. The Anonymous Lover is an overture from one of his six surviving operas.
  • Fréderic Chopin settled in Paris at 21 but his first piano concerto was composed a year earlier in 1830, in his native Poland. Memorable, romantic, and popular with audiences, the piano is very much the star of this piece.
  • Born in Liège, Belgium, César Franck sought his fortune in Paris and achieved renown as an organist, teacher, and composer. From the 1920s until it inexplicably fell out of favor in the 1960s, American audiences couldn’t get enough of Franck’s sensuous and passionate Symphony in D minor. We revisit the groundbreaking piece that inspired a generation of up-and-coming French composers.

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Making Concerts Fun

This isn’t your grandma’s orchestra! We like to do things a little differently...

  • Free pre-concert talk with Maestro Cabrera begins an hour before the show
  • Bring your drinks to your seats
  • Phones on and silent allowed
  • Clap when you like what you hear

The Program

Chevalier de Saint-GeorgesThe Anonymous Lover

ChopinPiano Concerto No. 1

FranckSymphony in D minor

Show Support By

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