Series caps season with Strauss, Mozart, Schubert
By SALLY VALLONGO
BLADE STAFF WRITER
This winter inside Toledo's classical music scene, it seems, everybody likes Richard Strauss.
Early last month, the Toledo Opera dramatically highlighted favorite operas by the turn-of-the century German composer for its gala evening, "The Last Great Romantic."
Next week, the Toledo Symphony and returning guest conductor Giordano Bellincampi will embark on Strauss' monumental tone poem, Also Sprach Zarathustra, in its pair of Classics VII concerts.
And just in case that's not enough, this Saturday's Mozart and More IV concert will kick off with Strauss' Serenade for Winds in E-Flat Major, Op. 7.
Not that we're complaining.
This beloved early work by the composing prodigy - like Mozart, his first pieces were written when he was 6 years old and the Serenade was completed when Strauss was 17 - calls for a dozen woodwinds and brass.
Bellincampi, general director of the Danish National Opera, and former music director of the Copenhagen Philharmonic, will also be on the podium for the 7:30 p.m. Saturday concert in the Franciscan Theatre & Conference Center of Lourdes College in Sylvania.
"We had a wonderful time with Mozart and Berlioz," Bellincampi recalls of his 2005 appearance in Toledo.
"The musicians are of very high standard and extremely dedicated to their music. We had a very friendly and yet highly professional collaboration."
Need something more?
Consider that the same concert will mark the Toledo debut of Shai Wosner, an Israel-born, New York-based pianist whose star is clearly on the rise. A winner of the 2005 Avery Fisher Career Award, he has begun building an impressive resume with performances of early and contemporary piano music in New York, Berlin, San Francisco, and Vienna.
With the orchestra and Bellincampi, Wosner will perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major.
Conductor and soloist have not worked together, so this will be a double debut. The concert will conclude with Schubert's Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major. This is the final event of this popular series for the season.
Tickets for the Mozart and More Concert IV at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Franciscan Theatre & Conference Center of Lourdes College in Sylvania are $29-33 at 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.
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Contact Sally Vallongo at: svallongo@theblade.com.
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