Vancouver Symphony Orchestra & Stewart Goodyear

​Three things to know:

• Our friends from the West Coast return to Southam Hall for a can’t-miss performance featuring superstar pianist Stewart Goodyear.
• Rachmaninoff’s final concerto for piano and orchestra is so difficult that the pianist for whom it was written never dared to perform it!
• A search for hope in a time of oppression, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.

Making music became a matter of life and death for Soviet composers when Joseph Stalin’s Great Terror campaign began a lethal crackdown on artistic dissent. Despite being denounced by the authorities and fearing for his life, Dmitri Shostakovich penned his Fifth Symphony—a work of artistic heroism in which the composer reacts to the violence, oppression, and cruelty of his time.

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto is adored by music lovers—and feared by pianists—for its marriage of technical fireworks and passionate melodies. From the tolling of distant bells that haunts the opening to the spirited dances of its finale, this rollercoaster ride for solo piano and orchestra is brought to life by Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear, whose performances of Rachmaninoff’s music “would surely have won the composer’s approval†(Gramophone).

And to commemorate the life of composer Jocelyn Morlock, the VSO’s Composer in Residence before her untimely death in 2023, Otto Tausk and the orchestra open the program with Night, Herself—a moody and mysterious work inspired by Morlock’s love of birdsong and nature.

Arrive Early for a FREE Pre-Concert Performance!

Start your evening with an inspiring performance by the Sinfonietta, the advanced string ensemble from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music! Experience a fresh take on ancient virtuosity with Max Richter’s bold 2012 re-imagining of one of classical music’s most iconic —Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. This performance will feature 33 talented young musicians performing Richter’s mesmerizing recomposition of The Four Seasons at 6:30 PM in the NAC’s Peter A Herrndorf Place. Don’t miss this captivating prelude before the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s main concert!