Sinfonia da Camera: Majestic Brahms and Sumptuous Ravel

Ian Hobson, music director & conductor Timothy Ehlen, piano

The first half features Johannes Brahms’s majestic Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, a mature work that showcases the composer’s penchant for expansive structure and profound expression. Sinfonia da Camera is thrilled to present Timothy Ehlen as piano soloist. Hailed as a pianist “with elegant personality. . . [and] immaculate technique” (New York Times), Ehlen is an International Steinway Artist and a professor of keyboard at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The concert opens with 2024 GRAMMY award-winner Jessie Montgomery’s Overture, a one-movement work showcasing a fusion of styles from jazz harmonies to Baroque polyphony. After intermission, the radiant impressionist orchestration of Maurice Ravel is on full display with the elegant and evocative Mother Goose Suite and the high-spirited and humorous Alborada del gracioso to finish.