RSO Opener Will Feature Four Musical Masterminds

RIDGEFIELD — Wagner’s Overture to The Flying Dutchman, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 (final movement) and Schoenberg’s heart-wrenching tribute to victims of the Holocaust, A Survivor from Warsaw, headline Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra’s (RSO) first concert of the season planned for Saturday, October 21, at 8 pm, in the Anne S. Richardson auditorium of Ridgefield High School.

Under the direction of Maestro Sidney Rothstein, who has successfully led the RSO for the past four years, the concert will feature the prize-winning American pianist Marcantonio Barone playing the Beethoven concerto; Severin Fayerman, a Holocaust survivor, narrating A Survivor from Warsaw, which will be further enhanced by the Men of the Concert Choir of Western Connecticut State University, under Conductor Kevin Isaacs; and 95 musicians on stage performing the finale of Mahler’s Symphony.

According to Maestro Rothstein, the programming of any concert should please everyone; that is, it should serve a variety of tastes, styles and emotions – the familiar and the unfamiliar. The October 21 concert, which he bills as a reminder of what anyone would want for the new century – peace and freedom – certainly fills that premise.

From Wagner, whose music dramas redefined opera, to Beethoven, whose magnitude added to the already elegant forms of his predecessors, to Schoenberg, whose impact on 20th Century music is parallel to Stravinsky, to Maher, whose magnificence is felt in overwhelming sensibility, each has proved a master in leaving as their legacy music to fill every emotion.

The Anne S. Richardson Auditorium at Ridgefield High School is on Route 116 (North Salem Road). Seating is reserved and tickets, which range from $25 to $35 each, can be purchased at Ridgefield Music Store or by calling the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra office at 203/438-3889.