Las Vegas Philharmonic opener to feature three Bs

You've heard of the three Bs: Beethoven, Brahms and "Breakdown."

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

Saturday's Las Vegas Philharmonic concert — the first in a season planned by music director Donato Cabrera — does include Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, featuring soloist Andrew Tyson.

And the presence of Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 2 in D major signals Cabrera's seasonlong focus on the work. (More about that later.)

Traditionally, Johann Sebastian Bach rounds out the list of classical music's three big Bs.

At Saturday's concert, however, the final B stands for "Breakdown," a new Dan Visconti composition that underlines Cabrera's commitment to programming works by living, breathing American composers.

Visconti's piece was commissioned by Cabrera's other orchestra, the California Symphony in Walnut Creek, where Visconti is currently young composer-in-residence.

The California Symphony premiered "Breakdown" last spring.

"I really enjoyed working with Dan; he is trying to go for exactly the type of music-making I find so appealing," Cabrera says. "He's obviously writing classical music, but incorporating blues and jazz and modern" elements.

The Las Vegas Philharmonic's "Breakdown" performance offers a "wonderful opportunity" to revisit a new work — something that doesn't happen all that often, according to Cabrera.

"What often happens with a premiere, it gets performed once," he explains, "and is never heard again."

That's hardly the case with Saturday's Beethoven and Brahms selections, often described as "warhorses" because of their centuries-long familiarity.

"I hate that term," Cabrera says of the "warhorse" brand, arguing that every time "you experience a great work of art, you see it in a new perspective."

Cabrera likens it to multiple viewings of a favorite movie; he cites "The Third Man" and "Casablanca" as his.

"You know what's coming, you know the end of the story, but you see and appreciate something new" every time, he explains.

That spirit informs Cabrera's own "multi-year survey of Brahms symphonies," which begins this season with the second.

He conducted Brahms' second symphony over the summer at the annual New Hampshire Music Festival, where he's music director. Following Saturday's Smith Center concert, Cabrera will conduct it twice more: in October with a new orchestra in the Mexican city of Boca del Rio (near Veracruz) and next May during the California Symphony's season finale.

With the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Cabrera hopes "to establish a very dark" — as in deep and rich — "lyrical sound from the orchestra, but also a flexible sound," he explains, "to establish an aesthetic of how this orchestra performs Brahms."

Despite aiming for a dark, rich tone, Brahms' second symphony offers "an incredibly sunny, lyrical" musical experience, according to the music director.

And that, in his view, contrasts with the Beethoven concerto, which Cabrera describes as "very dramatic — almost operatic, in a way."

Award-winning pianist Tyson definitely "feel(s) an affinity with this concerto," he says in a telephone interview from his North Carolina base.

"It could be considered the first really romantic concerto," Tyson comments, citing "a new spaciousness and drama" in Beethoven's composition — along with a new use "of the entire range of the piano."

Beethoven's five piano concertos (along with his "Triple" Concerto for violin, cello and piano) are "all masterpieces," in Tyson's view, and each presents "a unique and thrilling challenge," he notes. "Each one is kind of its own world."

But "the Third is very special," he explains — especially because "I just finished working on Mozart's C minor concerto," the opening movement of which inspired, and influenced, the Beethoven concerto he's playing Saturday.

Mozart may have influenced Beethoven, but the latter has a unique place among composers, the pianist comments.

"Beethoven is to music as Shakespeare is to theater," he comments. "He changed the landscape of musicians. Even the perception of composers changed" in his wake.

And for Tyson, "personally, Beethoven has been at the forefront of what I do," the pianist acknowledges. Even as a kid, "I enjoyed air conducting his symphonies in my room."

Since those days, Tyson has expanded his musical prowess, capturing acclaim (and awards) in the United States and internationally following his studies at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music and New York City's Juilliard School.

Beethoven's third piano concerto is "one of the first concertos I played" — and Tyson is especially eager to share his interpretation on "my first-ever trip to Las Vegas," he notes.

In the collaboration between orchestra and soloist, "what you want to have is a sense of openness and exploring this piece together," Cabrera comments.

Beyond that, "working together for the first time, what I hope to establish is a foundation for a lifetime of concertos with a soloist," the music director adds. "As artists, that's what we hope to achieve."

— Read more from Carol Cling at reviewjournal.com. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.