The dazzling artistry of Thomas Pandolfi will be on display when The Ohio Valley Symphony presents The Piano on Saturday March 24, 2018. The 7:30 pm concert takes place at the historic Ariel Opera House in Gallipolis, Ohio under the direction of Maestro Ray Fowler in one of his final performances.
Pandolfi will regale the audience with the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1, a flashy virtuosic piece written by the one of the best pianists of the 19th century. Liszt was quite a “bad boy” celebrity of his time engaging in what was then scandalous activities, but he broke a number of musical boundaries including his use of different instruments in the orchestra, compositional innovations and his holistic ideas of inclusion of all the arts, music, drama, art, poetry and dance. Continuing with those concepts but more than a century later, Pandolfi will also perform the James Bond Piano Concerto that includes the themes of all 17 of the movies about the legendary 007.
The concert opens with Brahms Tragic Overture which is not representative of tradgedy as sadness, but rather as serious (as opposed to his Academic Festival Overture comprised of college drinking songs of the day). This is followed by two of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances. Brahms and Dvorak enjoyed a close friendship, the elder Brahms mentoring the talented newcomer.
The OVS is devoted to bringing great music played by great artists to the Ohio Valley – and making orchestral music easy to love. The doors are open and the public is welcome to attend OVS rehearsals for free at 7-10 p.m. on Fridays and 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays on concert weekends. Open rehearsals are a wonderful way for young and old alike to listen to live symphonic music when schedules and timing do not allow them to attend concerts. They also offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what goes into preparing an orchestral performance.
Concertgoers — new or veteran — have another chance to learn more about the music with a free pre concert chat in the third-floor Ariel Chamber Theatre led by Stephen Huang, Director of Orchestras at Ohio University. The pre concert talks are interactive and informal and begin at 6:45 p.m. Afterwards, stop in at the reception to meet the musicians.
All three events are included in the ticket price for The Ohio Valley Symphony concerts at $24 for adults, $22 for seniors and $12 for students. Tickets are available on the website at arieloperahouse.org or ohiovalleysymphony.org or at the box office.
Funding for The Ohio Valley Symphony is provided in part by the Ann Carson Dater Endowment. The Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre is located at 426 Second Ave. in downtown Gallipolis, Ohio and is an ADA accessible facility.