Ruth Crawford Seeger, ultramodernist composer and matriarch of the folk-revival Seeger family, composed in radically different styles. Music for Small Orchestra came from her early, avant-garde period, while “Rissolty Rossolty,” a crazy-quilt polyphony of three folk tunes, was composed as a whimsical tribute to the never-ending energy of folk music. David Fung, who performed with VSO in 2018 to great acclaim, returns to play Tchaikovsky’s tempestuous Piano Concerto No. 1. The melody from this concerto’s iconic opening became a huge hit when transformed into the love song “Tonight We Love,” but the rest of this audacious early work is even more compelling, as it alternates between dreamy passion and quick passages of dazzling difficulty. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 shows the master at the height of his powers—transporting us from a pastoral beginning through wry humor, high tragedy, and triumph.
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