The Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Gerardo Edelstein, presents its season finale concert — Musical Pictures — May 15, 2018, at 7:30 pm at the Community Arts Center, Williamsport.

The program features pianist Francisco Montero performing Keith Emerson’s Piano Concerto No. 1. A founding member of the progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Keith Emerson [1944-2016] was hailed by Allmusic as “perhaps the greatest, most technically accomplished keyboardist in rock history.” Emerson, Lake, & Palmer was taking a three-year ‘sabbatical’ from performing when Emerson began work on his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1975. The Concerto was performed live with a full orchestra during the 1977 North American tour of Emerson, Lake, & Palmer and recorded that same year by Emerson and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The program will open with the colorful and melodic Roman Carnival Overture by romantic French composer Hector Berlioz. Berlioz salvaged parts of Benvenuto Cellini in the brilliant concert overture he named Roman Carnival. The lovely solo for the English horn was originally a duet between Cellini and his heroine in the first act of the opera. The frenetic dance that takes up most of the overture is a saltarello which, in the opera, accompanies the action on Rome’s Piazza Colonna on the last night of the carnival. The Roman Carnival Overture was cheered wildly at its first performance in 1844, and it has long been known as a dazzling showpiece for symphony orchestras.

Save best for Last! Mussorgsky’s masterpiece, Pictures at an Exhibition, will be the grand finale of yet another grand season. Orchestrated by Ravel, Pictures is an homage to artist, architect, and designer Viktor Hartmann. Inspired by his illustrations, Mussorgsky astonishingly depicts children, Baba Yaga in her wooden house on chicken legs, catacombs, gates and even rattling carts! An Art exhibit will accompany the piece.

For tickets, please call 570-326-2424 or visit http://www.williamsportsymphony.org

Season Sponsor: Hudock Capital Group

Concert Sponsor: UPMC Susquehanna and John C. & Linda S. D. Lundy

Guest Artist Sponsors: Bankers Life and PNC Bank