Start your season with an evening that truly feels like an occasion. JoAnn Falletta welcomes Lang Lang for Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto, pairing regal scale with brilliant virtuosity and a singing, generous spirit. Dukas opens with a radiant fanfare, and Debussy’s La Mer fills the hall with shifting color and atmosphere. It is a program designed to lift you out of the everyday and into a shared moment, where the first downbeat settles the room and the season begins in full glow.

Program

JoAnn Falletta, conductor
Lang Lang, piano

DUKAS  Fanfare to precede La Péri
DEBUSSY  La mer
I. De l’aube à midi sur la mer [From Dawn to Noon on the Sea]
II. Jeux des vagues [Play of the Waves]
III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer [Dialogue of Wind and Sea]

BRIEF INTERMISSION

BEETHOVEN  Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 73, “Emperor”
I. Allegro
II. Adagio un poco mosso
III. Rondo: Allegro

The Classics Series is presented by the

Opening Night Gala

Join us for a post-concert Gala dinner celebration! For information on Gala tickets or table sponsorship benefits, visit bpo.org/gala or call (716) 242-7821.

The Opening Night Concert and Gala is sponsored by Carolyn and John Yurtchuk.

About Lang Lang

Lang Lang is a leading figure in classical music today – as a pianist, educator, and philanthropist, he has become one of the world’s most influential and committed ambassadors for the arts in the 21st century. Equally happy playing for billions of viewers at the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing, the 2020 Dubai EXPO Opening Ceremony, the 2024 Reopening of Notre Dame in Paris, or just for a few hundred children in public schools, he is a master of communicating through music.

Heralded by the New York Times as “the hottest artist on the classical music planet,” Lang Lang plays sold-out concerts all over the world. He has formed ongoing collaborations with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Barenboim, and Christoph Eschenbach, and performs with all the world’s top orchestras. Millions of viewers watched his performances at the GRAMMY Awards with Metallica, Pharrell Williams, and jazz legend Herbie Hancock.

For about a decade, Lang Lang has contributed to musical education worldwide. In 2008, he founded the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, aimed at cultivating tomorrow’s top pianists, championing music education at the forefront of technology, and building a young audience through live music experiences. In 2013, Lang Lang was designated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as a Messenger of Peace, focusing on global education.

Lang Lang started playing the piano at age three and gave his first public recital before the age of five. At age nine, he entered Beijing’s Central Music Conservatory and won First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians at 13. He subsequently went to Philadelphia to study with legendary pianist Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music. He was seventeen when his big break came, substituting for André Watts at the Gala of the Century, playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach: he became an overnight sensation, and the invitations started to pour in.

Lang Lang’s boundless drive to attract new audiences to classical music has brought him tremendous recognition: he was presented with the 2010 Crystal Award in Davos and was picked as one of the 250 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum. He is also the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and New York University. In December 2011, he was honored with the highest prize awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and received the highest civilian honors in Germany (Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) and France (Medal of the Order of Arts and Letters). In 2016, Lang Lang was invited to the Vatican to perform for Pope Francis. He has also performed for numerous other international dignitaries, including four U.S. presidents and monarchs from many nations.