Beloved international pianist featured in Brahms concerto
Jackson, Mississippi — International pianist Alon Goldstein, hailed for delivering “pure pleasures” in performance, returns to Jackson for the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s season-capping Bravo concert “Mighty Keys” on Saturday, April 11, at Thalia Mara Hall.
The Israeli-born pianist, embraced by Mississippians for numerous concerts and recitals here, is the guest soloist for Johannes Brahms’ epic Piano Concerto No. 1. The evening opens with the biting wit of Sergei Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé Suite, for a truly blockbuster experience.
The piano concerto is a huge piece that packs in a ton of emotion. Goldstein was mesmerized the first time he heard it live in concert, as a 10-year-old piano student in Israel. “It changed my life. I’d never heard anything so compelling!” said the pianist, who bought the LP and listened to it again and again.
The concerto is a favorite, too, for MSO Conductor Crafton Beck and stands among several compositions that helped propel him into conducting. “I just adore this music. It’s one of my bucket-list pieces.” Many fellow musicians feel the same, he added. “It’s almost a sacred experience… just the best, best repertoire.”
Brahms’ career spanned the middle and late Romantic period, and his first piano concerto carries the hallmarks of the era. “It’s got all the passion and drama of the Romantics, all these sweeping melodies and virtuosic runs,” said MSO Artistic Operations Director Richard Hudson. “Everything is all kicked up a notch.”
Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé Suite was originally written to accompany a 1930s film of the same name – a satire of Russian bureaucracy with its story of an imaginary lieutenant and a coverup that builds to ridiculous heights. Prokofiev’s witty, melodious score was ahead of its time. “It’s just full of good humor,” Beck said. “I think that’s why people love it.”
MSO’s Bravo Series is sponsored by the Selby & Richard McRae Foundation. Guest artist Goldstein is sponsored by Martha Ross and Jim Thomas. MSO is supported in part by the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Reserved-seat tickets for the “Mighty Keys” concert are $43 and up for adults, available in advance: online at msorchestra.com or in-person at Ardenland in Duling Hall. For student discount use “StarStudent” Ticketmaster code. For patron services call 601-414-6005.
The box office and concessions open at 6:30 p.m. on the evening of the concert and tickets will be available at the door.
Who: Mississippi Symphony Orchestra
What: “Mighty Keys” Bravo Series Concert
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 11, 2026
Where: Thalia Mara Hall, 255 E. Pascagoula St., Jackson, MS
Website: msorchestra.com
