Music Director Laureate Robert Spano returns to Symphony Hall for a two-week residency, showcasing the America @ 250 series, with works from Bernstein, Rachmaninoff, and Chrisopher Theofanidis, featuring acclaimed soloists, pianists Sir Stephen Hough, Conrad Tao, violist Zhenwei Shi and mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, April 30 through May 9.

APR 30/MAY 2– Pianist Sir Stephen Hough joins Spano’s first Delta Classical Concert for Rachmaninoff’s virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 3. With a career spanning four decades and over 70 recordings, Hough brings an “impeccable pianism and refined musical sense” (Utah Arts Review) to Rachmaninoff’s most popular showpieces.

At the top of the concert, Spano conducts Christopher Theofanidis’ contemplative On the Bridge of the Eternal (written in 2020), using text from St. Augustine’s The Confessions. He welcomes frequent collaborator, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, for Bernstein’s tumultuous Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah.”

MAY 7/9– For his second week of America @ 250 concerts, Maestro Spano invites ASO Principal Violist Zhenwei Shi to step into the spotlight for Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. Shi personifies Harold on a quest for meaning while traversing through an Italian backdrop.

Spano trades one antsy exploration for another when he leads the orchestra in Bernstein’s Second Symphony, "The Age of Anxiety". Taking W.H. Auden’s 138-page poem, Bernstein translates post-World War II weariness to a New York bar through four characters. Pianist Conrad Tao, celebrated for “assertive virtuosity, razor-sharp articulation,” (The Washington Post) performs Bernstein’s “autobiographical protagonist.”

Robert Spano, who The New York Times raves, “has that great skill in a conductor of making every performance radiate joy,” leads both concerts exploring themes of the America @ 250 series.