New World Symphony is also performing May 2.
Michael Tilson Thomas is also performing October 3, October 4, March 5, March 6, and May 2.
Yuja Wang is also performing October 26, February 6, February 11, April 10, and May 2.
The Trustees of Carnegie Hall gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Alan G. Weiler in support of the 2018-2019 season.
Funding for this commission is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Julia Wolfe, a co-founder of the indie-classical collective Bang on a Can, has preserved her iconoclastic ethos even as she has reached the highest echelons of musical achievement, including a Pulitzer Prize in 2015 and a MacArthur “Genius Grant." She has become known for serious works on topics like exploitative labor practices, but for this co-commission from the New World Symphony and Carnegie Hall, she and Michael Tilson Thomas decided instead to focus on “serious fun.” In her new work, Fountain of Youth, Wolfe pays tribute to “this incredible orchestra of young people” and Michael Tilson Thomas, “who is forever young,” while also recalling Florida’s legendary wellspring sought by Ponce de León in the 16th century.
Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 5, completed in 1932 and premiered with the Berliner Philharmoniker, speaks to the crossroads that this Russian expatriate faced in Europe, where his self-described “new simplicity” chafed against modernist trends. The unruly concerto in five short movements brought Prokofiev into dialogue with the fashions of that time and place, producing music as incisive as Stravinsky’s and as nonchalant as Ravel’s.