Pyotr's Dream

8:00 pm, Friday, November 24, 2023

Guest Artist: Michael Berkovsky, Piano

Join the Etobicoke Philharmonic on Friday, November 24, 2023 at Martingrove Collegiate Institute - 50 Winterton Drive, Etobicoke (map) - for Pyotr's Dream.

Michael Berkovsky plays the mighty Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in this concert of contrasts that also features contemporary composer Andrew Balfour’s haunting “Pyotr’s Dream" and Beethoven's delightful Symphony No. 4.

Balfour based his piece on a Tchaikovsky hymn, with string voices evoking an ethereal, dreamy mood. From his diary, we know that Tchaikovsky’s dream, evoked whenever he studied a Beethoven symphony, was to compose a symphony of his own. His powerful Piano Concerto No. 1, with its ominous opening chords storming through the hall, contrasts with Beethoven’s playful Symphony No. 4. There is very little of Beethoven-the-all-conquering-hero as he freezes time in the slow introduction, combines song with fanfare in the second movement, drags us onto the dance floor for a barely danceable third movement before flinging wild, edgy chords at us in the finale.

This concert will thrill, intrigue, amuse... and perhaps delightedly exhaust you!