Tanya Bannister. Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco

By PAM HARBAUGH

The Brevard Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Christopher Confessore started its season with lightning when they performed the glorious Beethoven 9th. This weekend, they will end the season with thunder Saturday evening when 80 musicians perform Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.

As if that’s not enough, concert goers should go home positively electrified by a bravura performance of Liszt’s Piano Concert No. 1 by virtuoso pianist Tanya Bannister.

Born in Hong Kong, Ms. Bannister has degrees from the Royal Academy of Music in London, Yale University and New York’s Mannes School of Music. She has performed at important venues the world over, including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Salle Cortot, Nikkei Hall and Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls.

Lauded by the media, pianist Tanya Bannister’s recent victories at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the New Orleans International Piano Competition confirm her status among the leading pianists of her generation.

BBC Music Magazine calls her “clearly an artist to watch.” And the Washington Post said she played “…with intelligence, poetry and proportion…(giving variations) their own splendid little lives and characters while yoking them firmly into a grander totality.”

Regarding the Mahler, conductor Martin Alsop described the work to NPR as “a large-scale journey, guaranteed to provide surprises and new discoveries along the way…Even as a young man, Mahler was after the big picture. When other twentysomethings might have been writing lighthearted music, Mahler was trying to solve the riddles of the universe through his epic symphonies.

“For me, Mahler’s symphonies warrant Jungian or Freudian dissection. The Fifth Symphony employs huge orchestral forces, but the fact that it begins with a single individual voice seems almost apocryphal to me.”

So…for sure, this is a concert not to be missed. Put it on your radar right now.

The concert will be performed once, beginning 8 p.m. Saturday at the King Center, 3865 N. Wickham Rd., Melbourne. Before that, Maestro Confessore will deliver a little talk about the concert at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $39 to $50. Handling charges may apply. Call 321-242-2219 or visit KingCenter.com or BrevardSymphony.com.