Multi-award-winning Spanish pianist Josu de Solaun will make his way from Madrid to the Olympic Peninsula this Saturday. He’ll join the 75-member Port Angeles Symphony to play Beethoven — a piece he says starts like a Greek tragedy, then becomes almost beatific, then veers into rustic Hungarian dances and, by the finale, gives a taste of Italian opera. This music de Solaun finds thrilling is Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, part of the full symphony orchestra’s final concert of the 2024-’25 season. Conductor Jonathan Pasternack will raise his baton at 7:30 p.m. with a little extra celebration, this being his 10th anniversary season. Tickets can be purchased at https://portangelessymphony.org and at the door, and they include the 6:30 p.m. pre-concert talk featuring Pasternack and cellist Candace Brower, who will discuss the evening’s music.
The public is also invited to the Symphony’s final dress rehearsal at 10 a.m. Saturday; tickets to the working rehearsal are available on the website and at the door.
“Josu is one of the great artists living today, and it’s just such a treat whenever you get to hear him,” Pasternack said of Saturday’s soloist. "He is truly a poet at the piano."
The concert also features Shostakovich's 10th Symphony, an epic work about the triumph of music and art over oppression. This piece is especially powerful when heard live, said Pasternack.