Awadagin Pratt + Rimsky-Korsakovās Scheherazade
Celebrated pianist Awadagin Pratt makes his Festival debut with music old and new, beginning with Bachās nimble Keyboard Concerto in A major. Pratt then performs a piece he commissioned from lauded composer Jessie Montgomery; her Rounds is inspired by an epic poem by T.S. Eliot and the opposing forces that appear in nature ā āaction and reaction, dark and light, stagnant and swift.ā In Eastern folklore, the princess Scheherazade told the cruel Sultan 1,001 stories in order to save her own life; Rimsky-Korsakov borrows Scheherazadeās tales of royalty, festivals, sea voyages, and more in his richly orchestrated fantasy.