Youngstown Symphony Orchestra will feature concertos from Bach and Brahms

the vindicator

YOUNGSTOWN — The music of two towering figures in the world of symphonic music — Bach and Brahms — will be performed by the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra on Saturday at Powers Auditorium. The 8 p.m. concert will feature Bach’s Third Suite and Fourth Brandenburg Concerto from the Baroque period, along with Brahms’ First Symphony from the Romance period.

Randall Craig Fleischer is the musical director and conductor.

Tickets are available from the box office at (330) 744-0264 or online at youngstownsymphony.com.

Youngstown Symphony Orchestra musicians Calvin Lewis, violinist, and Kathleen Shaffer and Kathryn Thomas Umble, flutists, will be spotlighted during the Brandenburg Concerto. Shaffer is the principal flute of the YSO. She also has performed with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony and McKeesport (Pa.) Symphony Orchestra. In addition to performing, Shaffer is on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.

Kathryn Thomas Umble holds the piccolo/second flute position in the YSO and principal flute with the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra. She is an assistant professor of flute at Youngstown State University.

Lewis is the concert master of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. He also holds the position as principal second violin with the Fresno Philharmonic and is seated in the first violin section with the Santa Barbara Symphony. Lewis also has performed with the orchestras of Wheeling, W.Va., Dayton and Canton. He has participated in the Lancaster Music Festival, Breckenridge Music Institute, National Orchestra Institute and Spoleto Music Festival in South Carolina. Lewis has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cleveland Institute of Music.

The six Brandenburg concertos for orchestra acquired their name from the Margrave of Brandenburg, a collector of concerto music, who commissioned them from Bach in or about 1720. Each concerto, except No. 3, is for a different group of solo instruments. Bach used the solo instruments either in unison or contrast with the orchestra.

Generally speaking, the concertos follow the three-movement pattern of the Italian grosso: a vigorous first movement, a lyrical second and an impetuous and sometimes lighthearted third.

The program concludes with Brahms’ First Symphony. Brahms, who considered himself to be in the shadow of Beethoven, was so intimidated by Beethoven’s symphonies that it took him 20 years to complete his First Symphony, which many are convinced is the best first symphony ever written.