Open Rehearsal: James Gaffigan and Ray Chen

Conductor James Gaffigan and violinist Ray Chen return on a thrilling program that combines lyricism and athleticism, fireworks and finesse. Samuel Barber wrote only one Violin Concerto, but it’s such a dazzling doozy that you can’t blame him for quitting while he was ahead. Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony was composed at the height of the Second World War but its appeal is universal. As conductor Serge Koussevitzky effused: “It is magnificent! It is yesterday, it is today, it is tomorrow.”