Karina Canellakis with an American program

An all-American concert with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karina Canellakis. Inon Barnatan plays Gershwin's Piano Concerto. Also music by Perry, Bates and the Symphonic Dances from Bernstein's West Side Story.

American concert
An all-American program featuring the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by principal conductor Karina Canellakis and American-Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan. Conductor and pianist previously met in 2022 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a widely acclaimed performance of Gershwin's famous Piano Concerto. Despite the classical structure and romantic elaboration, Gershwin's signature swing is unmistakably present.
Those jazzy rhythms can also be found in Short piece for Orchestra by Julia Perry, who was born a hundred years ago. She manages to insert them very subtly, almost unobtrusively, in this short work for orchestra, so that it becomes a truly classical composition.

Bernstein's West Side Story
Among contemporary American composers, Mason Bates may call himself one of the most played. His Liquid Interface is a four-movement symphonic work in which he is inspired by the phenomenon of water, which he highlights from both sides. Indispensable to life, but also life-threatening with rising sea levels.
But the honor of most played American composer of all time belongs to Leonard Bernstein. His greatest success was undoubtedly West Side Story, a musical with the power and drama of an opera. Many songs from it have found a place in the Great American Songbook. They all appear in the Symphonic Dances, which Bernstein himself distilled from the original work.