Rossini
Overture to “Semiramide” 

Bartok
Viola Concerto
Hsin-Yun Huang, soloist

Beethoven
Symphony No. 7 in A


“Semiramide,” Rossini’s opera seria, begins with this riotously festive overture, containing one of Rossini’s most delightful “crescendo” passages. Bartok’s Viola Concerto, in the hands of celebrated soloist Hsin-Yun Huang, shows the composer’s feelings at the end of his life, the devastation of WWII, but also his profound love for the folk music of his native Hungary. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony ends this first program, the lilting masterpiece that Richard Wagner dubbed “the Apotheosis of the Dance.”