Tonight’s program opens the 2024/25 Walt Disney Concert Hall season with a celebration of two musical feats: it begins with one of Rachmaninoff’s greatest works of triumph, his Piano Concerto No. 2, and concludes with Ginastera’s heroic ode to the gaucho.

After the disastrous premiere of Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony, the composer collapsed into depression, prompting a years-long journey of recovery and artistic rebirth. The Second Piano Concerto, marking his victory over his inner demons, is an impassioned rollercoaster, best encapsulated by the heart-wrenching Adagio movement and its prominent melody known all too well. From the concerto’s tense, opening piano chords to its empowered, concluding runs, the music overcomes despair and emerges stronger than ever.

Resilient passion continues in the second half of the program with Alberto Ginastera’s 1941 Estancia, a ballet that gave voice and vibrancy to the cultural legends and folk music of the composer’s homeland, Argentina. The piece is part-love story and part-homage to Argentinian gauchos—the skilled, rugged cattlemen who epitomized nobility and endurance while working the land. In five scenes, lively and bright symphonic dances ensue as a persistent city boy, voiced by baritone Gustavo Castillo, courts a rancher’s daughter, outcompetes the gauchos, and rejoices in victory with his beloved cowgirl. The LA Phil’s recording of Estancia under Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, who leads this evening’s Gala concert, was included in its 2023 release Fandango, which was nominated the following year for a Grammy Award in the Best Classical Compendium category.

—Piper Starnes