Southern Tier Symphony Presents Musical Postcards

by Ed. Simone

The Southern Tier Symphony performs their final season concert this weekend in Olean
and Bradford. The musical choices are all crowd-pleasers.

"Musical Postcards," is this weekend's concert program and the STS's farewell to their
"Journey On" season. These orchestral postings come from composers as varied as Dvorak and
Grainger and feature dance tunes and symphonic pictures of cultures and places from the Kazakh
plains to Kinsale.

"This is a wonderful program, full of audience favorites. It takes us on a journey
from Britain to the Asian Steppes, with music from beloved composers such as Dvorak, Grainger
and Schubert. I think people will really enjoy 'travelling with us' during this final concert series
of our 21st season," said Southern Tier Symphony board member Prof. Laura Peterson
Alexander Borodin, the Georgian/Russian composer, wrote "In the Steppes of Central
Asia" in 1880, and it was an instant hit, painting pictures of wind-swept plains that extend from
Hungary to Mongolia. The piece has a familiar melody (from one of the kings of familiar
melodies) and some beautiful string writing.

Franz Schubert's overture to Rosamunde is an orchestral tour-de-force even though the
play for which it was written, about a peasant girl reclaiming her title as princess of Cypress, is
pretty much forgotten. The play may be obscure, but Schubert's music is an exciting mix of
delicate string work and stirring drama. With Ben Grow and the Southern Tier Symphony, it's
sure to delight.

Antonin Dvorak's eighth symphony is a jovial almost rollicking piece of Bohemian
bonhomie. Dvorak wrote it as a thank-you when he was named a member of Emperor Franz
Joseph's Academy of Arts and Literature. The symphony features plenty of dance and folk tunes
from Dvorak's homeland.

Another danceable piece on the "Musical Postcards" program is Percy Grainger's Molly
on the Shore. Part of Grainger's massive collection of folk tunes from the British Isles, Molly
mixes two Irish songs and as light-stepping a jig as ever there was.

The Southern Tier Symphony and their music director Benjamin Grow have chosen to
end their 23/24 season with musical magic for everyone.

Concerts are this weekend: Saturday, May 4th at 7:30 PM in the Regina Quick Center for
the Arts on the St. Bonaventure campus, and Sunday, May 5th at 3:00 PM in Blaidsel Hall at UPitt
Bradford.