PATRICIA C. SYAK / Symphony notes Orchestra is tuning up for Masterworks Series

During the Youngstown Symphony orchestra 2003-04 John S. and Doris Andrews Masterworks Series, the orchestra will perform many of the world's favorite musical selections under the direction of Isaiah Jackson.
Music from Beethoven, Brahms and Dvorak and concerts saluting American, French, Italian and Russian composers will highlight the season.
On sale now
Subscriptions are now on sale for the Masterworks Series by calling the Symphony Center box office at (330) 744-0264. Subscriptions to the six-concert series range from $50 to $210, with special rates for students and seniors.
The season begins with a tribute to America's musical voice Oct. 18 at the Edward W. Powers Auditorium at 8 p.m.
Brooklyn-born composer George Gershwin is represented by his Cuban Overture and Rhapsody in Blue.
The Pittsburgh Symphony's principal keyboardist performs soloist duties for Rhapsody in Blue, the composer's first attempt to produce serious music in a popular style.
Other selections featured during the gala opening concert sponsored by The Youngstown Symphony Guild include Copland's Billy The Kid Suite, an immensely popular musical portrayal of the notorious outlaw, and Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from his musical play West Side Story.
YSO welcomes Youngstown-born Tricia Park Nov. 22.
Park performs the Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1.
Paganini's compositions are entirely virtuoso works, written to create effect and were of great significance in the development of violin technique.
The Orchestra's salute to Italian composers continues in November with the Rossini William Tell Overture and the Overture to the opera La Forza del destino (The Force of Destiny) by Verdi -- Italy's greatest opera composer and one of the two greatest composers of opera the world has known.
Program conclusion
The evening's program concludes with Ottorino Respighi's The Pines of Rome.
Conjuring nostalgic memories of the Eternal City, Respighi's Pines of Rome entertains the listener with what can only be described as one of the mightiest crescendos in orchestral literature.
The concert is underwritten in part by Ricciuti Balog & amp; Partners Architects.
French composers provide the inspiration for the Jan.10, 2004, concert sponsored by General Motors Lordstown Assembly and General Motors Lordstown Metal Center.
Violinist Corey Cerovsek returns to perform Edouard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole.
When Cerovsek performs the Lalo work, it will be the original five-movement version as written in 1874.
The impressions which Spanish folk music had made on Maurice Ravel during his early childhood at Ciboure in the Basses-Pyrenees were firmly planted in his memory as witnessed in his most spectacular work, Bolero -- the centerpiece of the January Masterworks concert.
Bolero was first performed in America in 1929 by the New York Philharmonic.
Other selections to be presented will be Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Falla's The three-cornered hat, Suite No. 2.
In February
A love letter to America and a worldwide favorite, Dvor & aacute;k's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" will be presented Feb. 7. The Symphony No. 9 is Dvor & aacute;k's most famous work.
The second movement, one of the most celebrated in all symphonic music, has the unmistakable personality of a spiritual.
One of Dvor & aacute;k's pupils would later write words to the music, and the pupil's song "Goin' Home" is now almost as famous as the original.
Bookends for Dvor & aacute;k's American reminiscent will be Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 1 and the Grieg Piano Concerto performed by returning artist Terrence Wilson.
The Orchestra pays tribute to Beethoven at the March 13 concert.
After a triumphant debut during the 2002-03 season, pianist Alon Goldstein returns to perform Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto.
The C minor concerto marks a stage in Beethoven's development midway between a style broadly influenced by Mozart and one more distinctively his own.
Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, described by Wagner as an "apotheosis of the dance," and his Prometheus Overture complete the program.
The 2003-04 Masterworks Series concludes April 24 with a salute to Russian composers Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff and Mussorgsky.
Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 is one of his best- loved works and was introduced with the composer appearing as soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic in 1901.
The romantic passion, rhythmic liveliness and charm of the work captivated both press and public at its premiere and soon became one of the most frequently played piano concertos.
Fabio Bidini makes his YSO debut playing the Rachmaninoff work.
The Russian national school of composers known as "The Russian Five" is represented by Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
Written as a suite of piano in 1874, Pictures at an Exhibition is best known to concertgoers the world over as an orchestral composition.
The transcription to be performed by the orchestra during the season finale concert was written by Maurice Ravel.
XPatricia C. Syak is executive director of the Youngstown Symphony Society.