Italian pianist Alessio Bax is performing the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with music director Giancarlo Guerrero and The Sarasota Orchestra this weekend.
It’s a work he knows well. Now in his late 40s, he has been playing it for many years.
“This is a piece I’ve lived with for 30 years now, and probably is the concerto played the most in my life, and every year it's a few performances. And so now I look at the music in a different way, because I've grown, and that's really a trademark of great art and great music, that it grows with you,” Bax said.
He said you’ll never grow weary of this piece, because every performance will give you something different.
It’s been more than a decade since Bax performed with The Sarasota Orchestra.
But he met its new music director about four years ago, when the soloist and the conductor for a New York Philharmonic performance had to bow out.
“So, Giancarlo stepped in. So, it was a double cancellation and double debut with New York Philharmonic for both of us. It was so much fun, and the orchestra was so happy, and it just took us, you know, four years now to finally work (together). We've been trying, but the schedules are quite complicated, and we're working together now in Sarasota, and then later in the season in Nashville as well,” Bax said.
Bax said he approaches every performance as a celebration.
"You will still be nerve-wracking, you'll still panic, you still worry, still be sleepless at night, you're still frustrated, every day, but in the end of the day, we are incredibly lucky to share this music with the audience," he said.
Bax is married to pianist Lucille Chung, and they often perform together as a duo. They also have a young daughter who appears to be following in their musical footsteps.
For more information on Alessio Bax’s concerts with the Sarasota Orchestra at the Van Wezel this weekend, head over to their website.
