While it may not get nearly as much ink
as the far more renowned Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Symphony
Orchestra under the baton of Artistic Director Nicholas Armstrong
has carved out a respectable niche for itself among local music
fans over the past three decades.
And the orchestra’s upcoming season promises to give concertgoers
its usual mix of classical, romantic and modern works.
The first full-length orchestral concert of the new season will
be at Brooklyn College’s Walt Whitman Hall in Midwood (one block
from the junction of Nostrand and Flatbush avenues) on Oct. 22
at 8 pm. Beginning with the jolly prelude from Wagner’s opera
"Der Meistersinger von Nurnberg," more Mendelssohn
music arrives in the form of his Concerto for Violin, Piano and
Strings (with soloists Mioi Takeda on violin and Emily White
on piano), then Modest Mussorgsky’s crowd-pleasing "Pictures
at an Exhibition" ends the program in grand style.
The remainder of the Symphony’s schedule juxtaposes orchestral
concerts at Walt Whitman Hall and at the Church of St. Ann and
the Holy Trinity, at Clinton and Montague streets in Brooklyn
Heights, with chamber music at the Brooklyn Public Library branch
on Cadman Plaza West. Although the chamber programs had not been
announced at press time, the orchestral concerts are certainly
enticing: Haydn, Debussy and Gustav Holst, on Oct. 28 at St.
Ann’s; Richard Strauss, Dmitri Shostakovich and Evan Hause on
Feb. 11 at Walt Whitman Hall; Brahms and Edvard Grieg, on March
31 at St. Ann’s; and Johann Strauss, Edward Elgar and Adam Silverman
on May 26 at Whitman Hall.
Best of all, admission to all concerts is free, with donations
accepted at the door. (Although tickets to a special holiday
sing-along of Handel’s "Messiah," Dec. 14 at St. Ann’s,
are $15.) For more information, visit www.brooklynsymphonyorchestra.org.
