The Fresno State Symphony Orchestra, directed by Dr. Thomas Loewenheim, will present its final concert of the season at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at the Department of Music Concert Hall. The concert, titled “The Emperor Concerto,” will feature the internationally acclaimed pianist Jeremy Denk. Denk will perform what some consider as Beethoven’s greatest piano concerto, his fifth titled “Emperor.” It was composed in 1809, in part while the French army under Napoleon laid siege to Vienna. That conflict perhaps influenced the concerto’s often militaristic style, but the origin of its nickname “Emperor” is not known. The orchestra will close the concert with Sergei Prokofiev’s monumental Symphony No. 5. The work was written in the summer of 1944 in the midst of World War II, and its premiere performance had to be briefly halted due to celebratory cannon fire outside the concert hall when the Russian army had scored a resounding victory on the River Vistula. Ticket cost: $15 general, $10 employees and seniors, $5 students. INFO: http://fresnostate.edu/artshum/music/news-concerts/index.html.
