In short
Max Levinson appears as piano soloist with Symphony of the Mountains in a program titled "New World Rhapsody," performing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue alongside Ives's Variations on 'America' and Dvořák's Symphony No. 9. This concert is his listed engagement in our directory.
What to listen for
The centerpiece of this program for Levinson is Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, a work that opens with a famous rising clarinet slide before the piano enters with a bluesy, jazz-inflected theme. Listeners can expect the piece's mix of concert-hall grandeur and popular song style, with the piano moving between flashy solo passages and moments of close conversation with the orchestra. The rest of the program frames this American theme: Ives's Variations on 'America' reworks a familiar patriotic tune into surprising harmonic detours, while Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," closes the evening with sweeping melodies the composer wrote after encountering American folk and spiritual traditions during his time in the United States.
Written by OrchestraFinder, reviewed September 2026.