New World Symphony

Virtuosity reigns and the stars shine brightly when two Perspectives artists—Michael Tilson Thomas and Yuja Wang—share the stage. Prokofiev strove for simplicity in his final piano concerto, a work he originally named “Music for Piano and Orchestra.” The concerto, however, is anything but facile with its nimble opening movement, quicksilver toccata, and emotionally powerful Larghetto. Emotions certainly are at the fore in Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, a phantasmagoric tale of obsessive passion painted in kaleidoscopic orchestral colors.