The SSO’s first concert of the season will explore the music of five composers who were influenced by the music culture in Leipzig, Germany. Although Vienna is often considered the capital of music in the 19th Century, Leipzig holds a special place int he music and influences in the middle of that century.

The concert will begin with Brahms’ fun-filled “Academic Festival Overture” which was written by Brahms as a token of his gratitude for being bestowed an honorary doctorate in philosohpy from the University of Breslau. The work ends with Brahms’ setting of the tune “Gaudeamus Igitur” (“So Let Us Rejoice”) which is known as both a serious university song and a beer-drinking song! The concert will continue with Wagner’s lovely “Siegfried Idyll” for small orchestra, written for the birth of Richard and Cosima’s son, Siegfried, and first performed Christmas morning, 1870. Mendelssohn’s well-known “Wedding March” from his incidental music to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will begin the concert’s second half. This is the work that is often heard as the recessional at weddings. The concert will continue with Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg’s lively  Third Symphonic Dance. Grieg was among the composers who visited and worked in Leipzig.

The concert will conclude with Schumann’s wonderfully romantic Cello Concerto with soloist and Baltimore native, Frances Borowsky. A reviewer in Germany wrote the following about Frances: Oozing overall confidence and with sovereignty, she played with a superbly juicy tone, rich in resonance, with a dance-like swing and full of spirit – Heidelberg Rhein-Neckar Zeitung, Germany.

Pre-concert lecture to begin at 6:45 pm.