The Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 is her favorite but she knows them all. Yulianna Avdeeva brings the 2nd to Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony April 10th and 12th conducted by Rafael Payare. Yulianna Avdeeva spoke with Jim Cunningham about the special features of the Second Concerto. It is filled with tricky writing but born in Moscow, Yulianna Avdeeva has special love for the complex composer who returned to Russia with Stalin in charge after success in Paris and Chicago where he heard the premiere of the opera Love For Three Oranges.
Yulianna Avdeeva discusses her recording of “The Life of the Machines” by Wladislav Szpilman who was brought to life in Roman Polansky’s film “The Pianist” depicting the wartime world of Szpilman playing Chopin at the Warsaw Radio while the bombs fell. Was it realistic? Avdeeva knows members of Szpilman’s family. She has been in France to give a recital in Aix-en-Provence and she is off to Rafaael Payare’s Montreal Orchestra where she will work with guest conductor Simone Young. She has high praise for the Pittsburgh Symphony and remembers her live broadcast playing Prokofiev with Petr Popelka with special pleasure.
Rafael Payare has been a rising star for more than a decade having worked with Gustavo Dudamel, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim and Lorin Maazel on his way to the Music Director spot in Montreal and San Diego. In his dressing room with the portrait of former Pittsburgh Symphony Music Director Lorin Maazel looking over his shoulder, he tells Jim Cunningham he loved playing the French Horn in the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, but his life is even richer with two daughters and wife Alisa Weilerstein who sometimes join him for concertos.
He has hired thirty new members of the San Diego Symphony at the Jacobs Center after a huge investment has now greatly improved acoustics with a Wall Street Journal headline ‘Splendid New Sound’ from opening night 2024. His father was a cartographer in Venezuela where Maestro Payare benefited greatly from the Il Sistema training which brought his ‘Brother” Dudamel to the front of the orchestra world. Jimmy Lopez’ “Peru Negro” has a premiere here in Pittsburgh and he’ll lead it in San Diego where Lopez is Composer-in-Residence along with Montreal. Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” never fails to provide a charge for the conductor who has been described as ‘electrifying’.
The Principal Guest Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, Daniele Rustioni, speaks with Jim Cunningham in the Guest Conductor’s Dressing Room at Heinz Hall about his program for March 27,28 and 29, with Yefim Bronfman playing the Schumann Concerto, Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony and Samuel Barber’s School for Scandal Overture. Maestro Rustioni discusses his upcoming concerts, his work in Pittsburgh (including his visit to Carnegie Hall in December 2025 to hear the Orchestra play), and his operatic engagements in Europe.
Piano superstar Yefim Bronfman is a Mets fan. Yefim also loves making his coffee mostly at home in New York when he isn’t jetting around China, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston or wherever great music happens.
He spoke with Jim Cunningham in his dressing room at Heinz Hall after rehearsing the Schumann Concerto. He plays March 27-29 with Daniele Rustioni and the Pittsburgh Symphony. It’s their first time working together.
Yefim also talks about his love for the opera but gets to the Met only now and then with his full calendar. He admires Clara Schumann but has not yet played her music. He has met members of the extended Schumann family and Franz Schubert’s family was represented in a chance meeting in Los Angeles. Yefim plays the fierce Alfred Schnittke Concerto and music by Mathias Pintscher too but he is a master of the classics of Vienna and Central Europe. Is classical music growing or getting smaller? It is changing, he says while noting that Music Director Andris Nelsons of the Boston Symphony will be all right. It is a big loss to have his contract end after next season.
Pittsburgh is a favorite stop. He’s be back next season with Liszt and there is talk of adding one more concert next fall.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Manfred Honeck, plays Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”. WQED-FM’s Jim Cunningham spoke with mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey. She talks about singing with Ying Fang before; her thoughts on the music; and this being her very first time in Pittsburgh, even though she grew up in Virginia.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Manfred Honeck, plays Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”. WQED-FM’s Jim Cunningham spoke with soprano Ying Fang. She talks about her work with Manfred Honeck; doing the piece recently with Yannick Nezet-Seguin; performing Mozart’s Idomeneo with Manfred at the Met; and her espresso machine she takes on the road with her.
Piano legend, global classical music superstar, and Musical America Artist of the year 2026 Emanuel Ax plays Brahms’ First Concerto with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony this weekend at Heinz Hall! WQED’s Jim Cunningham ventured down to Heinz Hall for a chat with Mr. Ax during Friday’s rehearsals.
Ax talks about his honors and the memory he has of pianist Arthur Rubinstein at the Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv in 1974, as well as the premiere of the John Williams’s Piano Concerto written for him and heard with the composer onstage last year in Los Angeles. He remembers many Pittsburgh personalities with great warmth, including Byron Janis, Andre Previn, Lorin Maazel, and Mariss Jansons.
Ax reflects on the Brahms, calling it a piece full of “Hungarian passion,” and highlights some of his favorite recordings. He also provides his outlook on the current state of classical music in the public world.
On Friday February 13, 2026, WQED-FM broadcast the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert live from Heinz Hall. The concert featured Arturs Maskats “Tango;” Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with soloist Randall Goosby; Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.”
After the concert, WQED-FM’s Anna Singer spoke with Jim Cunningham about the scene in the lobby with the table of WQED giveaways; her thoughts on the concert; and a rundown of the many concerts taking place this weekend in Southwestern PA.
On Friday February 13, 2026, WQED-FM broadcast the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert live from Heinz Hall. The concert featured Arturs Maskats “Tango;” Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with soloist Randall Goosby; Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.”
During intermission, WQED-FM’s Jim Cunningham was joined by Music Director Manfred Honeck, who talked about the Mozart and the playing of Randall Goosby; this being the first time he ever conducted the Symphonic Dances by Bernstein; and if Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Austria.
Jim was also joined by Randall Goosby, who talked about his encore – Coleridge Taylor Perkinson’s “Louisiana Blue Strut, A Cakewalk”; playing the Mozart; and how he hopes to come back to Pittsburgh when the weather is warmer so he can play golf at Oakmont!
On Friday February 13, 2026, WQED-FM broadcast the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert live from Heinz Hall. The concert featured Arturs Maskats “Tango;” Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with soloist Randall Goosby; Barber’s Adagio for Strings, and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.”
Prior to the start of the concert WQED-FM’s Jim Cunningham was joined by cellist Charlie Powers, who talked about their post-concert performance of Elgar and Bernstein, and traveling to Florida in a few weeks with a few other members of the Orchestra for a short chamber tour.
Jim was also joined by Alejandro Pinzon, who is the director of the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra. He talked about playing the bandoneon on the first piece in the program – “Tango.”
WQED-FM’s Jim Cunningham spoke with PSO guest violinist Josef Spacek making his Heinz Hall debut with the Dvorak Violin Concerto. Spacek spoke about his long relationship with guest conductor Petr Popelka; his work in his native country and arrival in the US at Curtis in Philadelphia before going to Julliard where he studied with Itzhak Perlman. Spacek has worked to develop a new line of violin strings, which he will be playing on his Guarneri del Gesu violin. He spoke about his recent recording of the Martinu concertos and how he found love, marrying an American girl whom he met in France. Spacek says he’s delighted to learn about Pittsburgh and hopes to bring his family for a visit soon.
WQED-FM’s Jim Cunningham spoke with returning guest conductor Petr Popelka leading the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, the Dvorak Violin Concerto and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. Maestro Popelka speaks in his dressing room about Pittsburgh’s connection to the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra; his work with soloist Josef Spacek; their love of fellow countryman Antonin Dvorak; his successful debut with the Berlin Philharmonic; and his love of radio.