In Sunday’s (7/22) Daily Gazette (Schenectady, New York), Geraldine Freedman writes, “It’s a rare event to have an orchestra that is not the Philadelphia Orchestra come to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to have an evening all to itself. But JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, is no stranger to making debuts. On Wednesday, she will bring her orchestra to perform a concert of Smetana’s ‘Bartered Bride Overture,’ Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with concertmaster Michael Ludwig, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World.’ This will be the BPO’s Capital Region debut, but it will not be Falletta’s. In April, she guest-conducted the Albany Symphony Orchestra for the first time.” Commenting on the program, Falletta says “We’ve just recorded [the Dvorak], and it’s always a discovery for the orchestra and the audience. Michael Ludwig has had a long history at SPAC, teaching and playing (he was associate concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra for several years). He remembers going to SPAC with his father, who was a member of the Philadelphia. So he feels that he grew up there. This was the perfect opportunity to showcase someone we’re very proud of. He became our concertmaster in 2006 and he’s been a great concertmaster and he’s developed quite a solo career—he records for Naxos.”
Photo by Cheryl Gorski
Posted July 24, 2012
