Season opens Oct. 24 with three "Masterpieces"

The Folsom Symphony, under the baton of Maestro Peter Jaffe, officially opens its 2015-2016 season Oct. 24 with "Masterpieces," a selection of three of the most esteemed works of classical music. Alon Goldstein, an Israeli classical pianist, performs as guest soloist.

The set opens with Aaron Copland’s patriotic "Fanfare for the Common Man," written in response to the U.S. entry into World War II. The title was taken from a 1942 speech by Vice President Henry A. Wallace in which he proclaimed the dawning of the "Century of the Common Man." Powerfully played primarily with brass instruments, this piece is often chosen for ceremonial occasions, including President Obama’s Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial in 2009 and the final landing of the Endeavour space shuttle in Los Angeles in 2012.

In the second piece, Goldstein will perform the piano solo in Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, composed in 1858. The concerto was Brahms’ first-performed orchestral work, written in his 20s, and the composer continued to revise it even after early performances. It was not well received while Brahms was alive but is now one of the best-loved and most frequently performed piano concertos in the world. 

Goldstein has been praised for performing with "a wonderfully silken touch" and phrasing that’s "alive with poetic intent." He appears worldwide and has won the Arianne Katcz Piano Competition and Francois Shapira Competition in Israel and the Nena Wideman Competition in the U.S. He recently premiered two concerts written for him – Avner Dorman’s "Lost Souls" with the Kansas City Symphony and Mark Kopytman’s "Ornaments" with the Jerusalem Camerata. This season he plans a return concert tour to Latin America.

The evening's final piece is Modest Musorgsky’s "Pictures at an Exhibition," inspired by the composer’s visit in 1874 to a retrospective exhibit of works by Russian artist Viktor Hartmann. Each of the 10 varied movements represents one of the pieces on display. Though it was not published until 1886, five years after the composer’s death, the suite has become Musorgsky’s most famous composition and ashowpiece for pianists. Originally a solo for piano, it was later orchestrated by other composers, with the version the symphony will play, arranged in1922 by French composer Maurice Ravel, the most recorded and performed.

The concert will be performed at the Harris Center/Three Stages theater on the Folsom Lake College campus, 10 College Parkway, at 7:30 p.m. Buy tickets on the symphony's website, www.folsomsymphony.com, by calling 916-608-6888 or by visiting the ticket office on the Folsom LakeCollege campus.