An Evening with Lang Lang

New York’s “hometown band” opens a new season with familiar favorites and exciting guests in a spirited performance. Maestro Jahja Ling leads a royal charge with Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide before Lang Lang takes the stage for Saint-Saëns’s virtuosic second Piano Concerto. The orchestra rollicks through an exuberant interpretation of Kodály’s folksy Dances of Galánta, highlighting the talents of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble member and clarinet soloist Jon Manasse. Finally, Lang Lang brings his famously expressive presence to The Carnival of the Animals, for which he’s joined on piano by Gina Alice Redlinger. To accompany Saint-Saëns’s well-loved suite, which blends the sounds and movements of animals with quotes from fellow composers, we hear a unique poetic narration, written expressly for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and handpicked by Lang Lang for the occasion.