LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lake County Symphony will present its 2025 Fall Concert on Nov. 23 at 2 p.m. at the Soper Reese Theatre in Lakeport. 

This concert is dedicated to the memory of Lynne Bruner, LCSA treasurer and symphony violinist.

Musical Director/Conductor John Parkinson opens the performance with the rousing “Radetsky March” by Austrian composer Johann Strauss Sr. (1804-1849). 

The piece is considered Strauss’ most famous. It became very popular among regimented marching soldiers, who spontaneously clapped and stamped their feet when they first heard the chorus. Conductors today continue this tradition and take great delight in conducting the audience, as much the orchestra, with great gusto. 

The next selection — the “Cosi Fan Tutte Overture” — is by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 -1791). 

Mozart wrote Così Fan Tutte, K. 588, an opera buffa in two acts in collaboration with Lorenzo Da Ponte (who also wrote Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni). The most successful operas for Mozart were the Italian comic operas known as ‘opera buffa.’   This one was first performed in January 1790 in Vienna, Austria. 

The music of Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) is next. The symphony performs the overture to his “Tancredi” opera, which Rossini wrote at the age of 20. 

Rossini was born into a family of musicians in Pesaro, a town on the Adriatic coast of Italy, and gained fame for his 39 operas. He also wrote many other songs, and was very popular at a young age, setting new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from full-scale composition while still in his 30s, at the height of his popularity. 

Until his retirement in 1829, he had been the most popular opera composer in history, with operas such as “Barber of Seville” and “William Tell.” His tendency for “inspired, song-like melodies” in his scores, led to the nickname, “The Italian Mozart.”

The next piece, the “Ruy Blas” overture by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) is the result of a request to Mendelssohn for an overture and a song for the production of Victor Hugo’s play, “Ruy Blas.” Mendelssohn was perhaps the greatest child prodigy after Mozart and also died at an early age. 

After a brief intermission, the symphony returns to play Robert Schumann’s Symphony No.1 or “Spring” as it is usually known. Schumann (1810-1856) stands out to musicologists as an “influence in formal structure, harmonic practices and piano writing. Schumann was thoroughly committed intellectually and emotionally to the idea of music being composed to “register feelings, thoughts and impressions garnered by a sensitive spirit on its journey through life.” 

Some have called the piece a “wonderful performance of a work that celebrates the awakening of nature after the bleakness of winter.” Others believe that “Spring” puts Schumann in the same league as Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. 

Unfortunately, Schumann’s life was plagued by periodic attacks of severe depression, nervous exhaustion and suicide attempts. 

Despite these difficulties that surely reduced his output, he is considered an advanced composer of his day and stands in the front rank of German romantic music figures. 

Schumann is renowned particularly for his piano music, songs (lieder) and orchestral music. Many of his best-known piano pieces were written for his wife, pianist Clara Schumann.

Tickets for the regular 2 p.m. Fall Concert are $25 for general seating or $30 for premium seating in the balcony and are available now for purchase on the Soper Reese website. 

Tickets are also available at the Soper Reese box office at 275 S. Main on the day of the concert. The open dress rehearsal performance starts at 11 a.m.  with discounted tickets for $10 and free admission for those 18 and under. Please arrive 30 minutes early when buying tickets at the door.