In November cellist Ralph Kirschbaum is to perform Ernest Bloch's Hebraic Rhapsody, "Schelomo," plus a short Dvorák piece, "Silent Woods," framed by two popular blockbusters, Respighi's "Pines of Rome" and Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 5" under DeMain.
February will be another two-program month. In the first, popular violin virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman will play Mozart's "Concerto No. 5" and join his wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth, in a duo by Saint-Saëns, while the latter is to solo in Bruch's "Kol Nidrei"; then our local organ master, Samuel Hutchison, will join DeMain in revisiting Saint-Saëns's spectacular "Organ Symphony" (No. 3). Those who remember Anu Tali's splendid podium debut with the MSO last November will welcome her back for the second February concert in music by fellow-Estonian composer Heino Eller and Sibelius's "Symphony No. 1," while the brilliant Stephen Hough returns as soloist in Tchaikovsky's popular "Piano Concerto No. 1."
The March program will feature Jonathan Biss in Mozart's majestic "Piano Concerto No. 25"; guest conductor Patrick Strub will direct Weber's "Oberon" Overture and a novelty, Brahms's youthful "Serenade No. 1." Maestro DeMain will return in April, to salute the season with Rimsky-Korsakov's colorful "Russian Easter Overture," then to welcome two soloists: pianist Philippe Bianconi in Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini," and bass-baritone Dean Peterson, with the Symphony Chorus, in excerpts from Mussorgsky's opera "Boris Godunov."