PORT ANGELES — For this concert, the conductor and the guest artist wanted a concerto “to warm the soul and heart,” nothing less, pianist Anna Petrova said this week.
She’s the featured soloist in the Port Angeles Symphony’s season-opening performances this Saturday. The pair of concerts — at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. — have as their centerpiece Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, one of the best-loved piano works in the classical repertoire.
The full orchestra, including musicians from across the North Olympic Peninsula, will take the stage also for Jean Sibelius’ Andante Festivo — “a stirring hymn to life,” in the words of conductor Jonathan Pasternack. Next comes Johannes Brahms’ First Symphony, a masterwork some 14 years in the making. And the finale: Petrova’s concerto.
The venue is, as ever, the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave., where safety protocols will be in place. Patrons must show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 upon entry; face masks are required throughout the concerts.
While the evening performance is at capacity, single tickets and season subscriptions are still available for the 10 a.m. concert. Individual tickets can be purchased at portangelessymphony.org and at Port Book and News, 104 E. Front St., while patrons can find out more by phoning the symphony office at 360-457-5579 or emailing pasymphony@olypen.com.
“I am very excited, very hopeful,” Petrova said of this re-emergence of the symphony orchestra she’s come to know.
Born in Bulgaria, Petrova has performed all over the United States and Europe, and is now a professor of piano at the University of Louisville.
After giving two performances in Port Angeles in 2017 and 2018, she was to appear as featured soloist with the orchestra on May 2, 2020.
That concert, and the rest of the season following it, were canceled.
Petrova, reached during a layover on her flight to Seattle on Monday, said Port Angeles is a place where the symphony’s musicians and audiences have made her beyond welcome; here, she feels she’s among friends.
As the pianist walks on stage Saturday, it will be the first time she’s done so with a full orchestra since February 2020.
The plan had been for Petrova to play Sergei Prokofiev’s third piano concerto. But she and Pasternack, after talking it over, decided that wasn’t right. Prokofiev’s style can have a kind of snark, Petrova said.
The Grieg, with its bold beginning, fits this moment, they believe.
“It has the most gorgeous melodies, and beautiful writing for the orchestra,” Petrova said.
Like the rest of the music in Saturday’s concerts, the concerto showcases the whole ensemble. The flute, the strings, the timpani and the horn are all part of a conversation with the piano.
Subscriptions continue to be on sale for the rest of the symphony’s morning concerts during this 89th season. In addition to Saturday, they are:
• Dec. 11: Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with guitarist Elizabeth C.D. Brown.
• Feb. 19: Principal oboist Anne Krabill, featured in “The Flower Clock” by Jean Francaix.
• March 26: Victoria Parker will play Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1.
• May 7: Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with Alexander Tutunov.
“The excitement in rehearsals has been palpable,” Pasternack said.
“We are all so thrilled to be able to play together again. Add to the mix an audience that has been starved of live music performances, and you have the recipe for an unforgettable experience.”
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladaily news.com.
