Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

“It’s one of astonishing power and beauty,” said The New York Times of violinist Janine Jansen’s “full-bodied, polished-wood sound.” She is the soloist in one of the Romantic era’s great works: Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. It is certainly a showpiece for the soloist, but the concerto is also a work of tremendous lyricism and emotional weight. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is one of the great Mahler orchestras, performing the composer’s Symphony No. 1 at Carnegie Hall—a work that delights with its sounds of nature and lilt of folk song, while uplifting the spirit with its sublime climax.

Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

Music inspired by exotic locations and an unconventional concerto are featured in the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s debut Carnegie Hall concert. Philip Glass’s Days and Nights in Rocinha is an evocative tribute to the largest favela in Brazil, while La noche de los Mayas—a suite drawn from a score Revueltas composed to a film that is now lost—is inspired by Mayan culture, culminating in a blaze of pulsing rhythms and wild percussion. There are more fireworks in Glass’s Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra, a thrilling showcase requiring Olympian virtuosity from the two soloists who play nine timpani between them.