The San Antonio Symphony will celebrate Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano’s 80th birthday with his Promenade Overture, a piece which was influenced by and incorporates elements of Haydn’s “Farewell Symphony.” Themes from Haydn’s symphony are performed backwards by offstage brass and musicians enter the stage, rather than exit, during the performance.

Following this dramatic overture, international soloist Philip Edward Fisher performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major. Beethoven himself premiered this work as the soloist in 1795. One of Brahms’s most optimistic compositions completes the program with his Symphony No. 2. This Symphony has been compared to Beethoven’s 6th Symphony due to its pastoral mood depicting the freshness of spring and new beginnings.