Midamerica Productions is in its fourth season of presenting marathon series of choral-orchestral concerts in the New York City area, and the sixth of the 22 in this season was given in Avery Fisher Hall Monday night. The program, while hardly adventuresome, was nevertheless most pleasurable, since the performances showed the fruits of solid qualifications and diligent preparation.

Once again the Manhattan Philharmonic played under the baton of Peter Tiboris who, though he still doesn't have a recognition factor comparable to a Mehta, is nevertheless a very fine conductor who consistently gets excellent results.

Tiboris led the second half of the program, which featured 18-year-old Dimitris Sgouros as piano soloist in the Mozart 21^st Piano Concerto and the Beethoven Choral Fantasy. Sgouros remains a phenomenal virtuoso and, despite his youth, has an amazingly mature yet always fresh outlook on music. He allowed the Mozart to make its songful, at times exalted, statements with artless simplicity, while the Beethoven unfolded for once as a wonderfully arched statement of sheer delight.

 Dimitris Sgouros on the original cadenzas he composed for several of Mozart's Piano Concertos, plus a scintillating performance of the cadenza section of Beethoven's 1st Piano Concerto

Official program book - Lincoln Center/stagebill

Dimitris Sgouros at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, April 18, 1988

>> Click to watch a video of Dimitris Sgouros performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No 21 at Avery Fisher Hall <<

Dimitris Sgouros at Carnegie Hall, New York, April 30, 1986

"In Celebration of Youth"

Chopin Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor

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