Guest Conductor Michael Christie to Lead Atlanta Symphony, Now thru 4/28

Guest conductor Michael Christie will lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra premiere of Weinberg's "Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes" and the Orchestra premiere Schubert's Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished," as completed by Marcel Tyberg. Guest pianist Behzod Abduraimov will make his Atlanta Symphony debut playing Mendelssohn's "Piano Concerto No. 1." The performances will take place tonight, April 26 and run April 27 and 28, 2012, at 8:00 p.m. in Atlanta Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center.

Both Marcel Tyberg, who completed Schubert's immortal Unfinished Symphony, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg were victims of the Holocaust. Mendelssohn, though long dead by the 1930s, was listed prominently in an infamous book published by the Nazi propaganda machine as a composer whose music was totally banned in Germany. Tyberg perished in Auschwitz in 1944. Weinberg was only a bit more fortunate in that he was able to escape to The Soviet Union in 1939, but every other member of his family was murdered by the Nazi regime. Presenting these works in one concert is an act of memory in the month of April when Yom HaShoah - the annual commemoration of the Holocaust - is observed as well as the 2012 celebrations of Israel Independence Day which this year occurs on April 26.

These performances will mark Mr. Christie's fourth appearance with the Orchestra.

Photo Credit:  Behzod Abduraimov