Fabio Luisi conducts Sophia Jani, Xi Wang (world premiere), and Saint-Saëns — With Karen Gomyo, Tine Thing Helseth, and Bradley Hunter Welch

"It will be terrifying, I warn you," wrote Camille Saint-Saëns ahead of the premiere of his famed Symphony No. 3, which breaks from genre conventions by featuring prominent parts for organ and piano. But it was worth the risk, as the innovative work became one of Saint-Saëns's most admired and regularly performed more than a century after his death—and there's nothing to fear when you're in the capable hands of the indomitable Dallas Symphony Orchestra, who take on this repertoire monument under the expert baton of music director Fabio Luisi, with their resident organist Bradley Hunter Welch in the spotlight.

The rest of the program is equally groundbreaking, featuring DSO Composer-in-Residence Sophia Jani's Flare, inspired by the poetry of Mary Oliver, and the thrilling world premiere of YEAR 2020 by Chinese composer Xi Wang. This intense and moving reflection on one of the most tumultuous years in living memory, whose aftereffects continue to reverberate, evokes the chaos of the time through clashing themes on the violin (performed by Karen Gomyo), trumpet (Tine Thing Helseth), and orchestra—clashes which ultimately resolve in a message of hope, courage, and togetherness.