The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew's With Violinist Glenn Dicterow

• Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
• Mozart: Symphony No. 29 in A major
• Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite

Our season opener is the first concert underwritten by the Lathers Memorial Fund, and we are thrilled to present violinist Glenn Dicterow. In his 30 year tenure as Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Dicterow was featured on numerous New York Philharmonic tours and “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcasts. He will perform the exciting Second Violin Concerto by Prokofiev.

Mozart was just 18 when he wrote the A major symphony, but had already found his unique voice. Musicologist Stanley Sadie calls it, “a landmark ... personal in tone, individual in its combination of an intimate, chamber music style with a still fiery and impulsive manner.” Featured throughout the movie “Amadeus,” the symphony displays the unique blend of joyfulness and quiet melancholy that is so indicative of Mozart’s music.

The Pulcinella Suite arises from the 1919 inspiration of Russian ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, to create a ballet based on the ageless, improvised Italian street entertainment known as the commedia dell’arte. For the music, Diaghilev chose Russian composer Igor Stravinsky with whom he had collaborated on some of his most famous modernist works — The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. But for this project Stravinsky had to reinvent himself as a Classicist, which he did brilliantly, with charming tunes and jaunty dance rhythms.