GIUSEPPE VERDI: Overture to La Forza del Destino
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 35
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64

Tito Muñoz, conductor
Giora Schmidt, violin

The Overture from Guiseppe Verdi’s popular opera La Forza del Destino (The Power of Fate) opens this concert of favorites from the Romantic era. Giora Schmidt, a violinist described by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “impossible to resist, captivating with lyricism, tonal warmth, and boundless enthusiasm," takes on Tchaikovsky’s magnificent Violin Concerto. Closing the program is Tchaikovsky’s wildly popular Fifth Symphony, a work so beloved, it was performed on the radio during the siege of Leningrad in World War II to inspire Russian troops.