“Midland Symphony Orchestra Conductor Bohuslav Rattay came to Midland three years ago, he brought with him the rich heritage of his European upbringing,” writes Sue White in Tuesday’s (9/30) MLive.com (Michigan). “And during a symphony performance season liberally peppered with classical concertos Midland audiences crave, he will take a group to the hallowed grounds of Vienna and his native Prague. Among the trip’s highlights are a tour of the Strauss residence where ‘The Blue Danube’ was composed, a dinner cruise along the Vltava River and a trip to the theater where ‘Don Giovanni,’ the ‘Prague’ Symphony and the Clarinet Concerto premiered.… The late June 2015 excursion caps a Midland Symphony season that begins Saturday, Oct. 4… It starts with Karim Al-Zand’s ‘The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad, followed by Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with [Sean] Chen and Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Scheherazade.’ … Al-Zand is on the faculty of Rice University.… ‘We try to go here and there, combining the classical works with something new and opening people’s minds,’ Rattay said.… ‘It has to be done tastefully so it’s not overwhelming audiences—a lot of modern music is not so good—but developing a bond between the warhorses and what we know is good is how we’ll survive.’ ”
Posted October 2, 2014
