PEACH WEEKENDER

Music: Sounds of Bruckner will fill Rosary Cathedral

The Toledo Symphony will perform Anton Bruckner’s ‘Symphony No. 0 Die Nullte’ at 7 p.m. May 9 in Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral.

Corrected version: Times of Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra concert and Toledo Symphony's Youth Orchestras concert are fixed.

The performance of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 0 Die Nullte, at 7 p.m. May 9 in Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral will be the penultimate event of an award-winning decade for the Toledo Symphony and its principal conductor, Stefan Sanderling.

It will be presented this year on Friday instead of Sunday — the change because of Mother’s Day, said Paul Monachino, minister of music at Rosary and a supporting player in presenting this Toledo Symphony series.

“This is not the first time the concert has been on a Friday,” added Monachino, noting that the final event, a performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1, also is slated for a Friday night — May 8, 2015.

Bruckner was a devout Roman Catholic, an organist, and a chronically self-doubting composer. Yet his works are often transcendent in impact, particularly, as has been the case with this series, when performed in a setting of spiritual purpose. Not only is Rosary Cathedral spirit-filled, it is gorgeous visually and packs an enormous acoustic punch.

For Sanderling, a fan of the composer, having the freedom to bring Bruckner’s music to the fore has been important in many ways.

“The beauty of a Bruckner symphony is a catalyst,” he said, speaking of the long-term positive effects on the brain and emotions engendered by great music.

Like them or not, he said, emotions never lie.

“Sooner or later, you will have to give in to your emotions,” observed the conductor, who is marking his first decade in artistic leadership with the Toledo Symphony. “When that happens, you become a more honest person.”

Further, unlike the experience of listening to great music via headphones or CD player at home, sitting in a space with others and hearing the rich sonorities of a Bruckner, for example, expands its impact.

In 2012, the Bruckner Society of America awarded Sanderling the Joseph Kilenyi Medal of Honor for extraordinary work in furthering understanding and appreciation of the composer’s work.

Citing the great, late Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache, Sanderling said when music is “consumed” in a group, the impact is amplified. “You breathe the same air. You foster an emotional and intellectual connection.”

Symphony No. 0 is the only one of Bruckner’s 10 symphonies to never have been reworked by the composer, notorious for second and even third-guessing his own writing.

Tickets are $35 at the door or, in advance, 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.

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A Regional Concert by the symphony is slated to begin at 8 p.m. Saturday in St. Clair Memorial Hall of the Darke County Center, 215 W. Fourth St., Greenville, Ohio. Resident conductor Jeffrey Pollock will lead a Mozart-centric program including overtures to operas The Impresario and The Marriage of Figaro, selections from symphonies No. 38, 35, 40, and 41.

Clarinetist Georg Klaas will solo in a movement from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Tickets are $30 at 937-547-0908.

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The final Blade Chamber Series concert is set for 7 p.m. Sunday in the Toledo Club. A challenging and innovative program of premiere works is planned.

The evening will start with Mozart’s Prelude and Fugue No. 1, a string trio bringing together the Toledo Symphony’s string principals — concertmaster Kirk Toth, violist Valentin Ragusitu, and cellist Martha Reikow — in a two-movement piece (Adagio and Fugue).

Next, five players will get down in a performance of David Baker’s Sonata for Tuba and String Quartet, a 1971 piece by jazz cellist Baker after he met famed tubist Harvey Phillips. Symphony tubist David Saltzman will perform with a string quartet comprising Merwin Siu and Tea Prokes, violins; David Ford, viola, and Robert Clemens, cello.

The program will conclude with Brahms’ String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat minor, played by Toth, Ragusitu, Reikow, Siu, violist Reed Anderson, and cellist Amy Chang.

This concert is nearly sold out. For tickets and information, call 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.

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Robert Mirakian will lead the Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra in its Spring Concert at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Owens Community College Center for Fine and Performing Arts Theatre. A varied and challenging program will center on Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Major.

Soloist in the latter will be the very busy Phillip Clark, adjunct faculty at Owens, a graduate assistant at the University of Toledo, and Toledo Choral Society accompanist.

Also joining the orchestra will be the Perrysburg Junior High School Orchestra, for a side-by-side performance of the Adagio movement from Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 and the Finale from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.

Tickets at $10-$12 will be available at the door. Children and students are admitted free.

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Is it spring? wonders Sylvania’s Community Orchestra, which will address the issue in a free concert at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Wurzel Family Center of St. Joseph Church School, 5362 S. Main St., Sylvania.

Maestro Kathleen Hafner will conduct. Appearing in solo roles will be mother-daughter musicians Heidi Clausius, piano, playing Mozart, and Allison Clausius, violin, playing a work by Tomaso Vitali. Also planned are Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Summer Dancers by Brian Balmages. The Sylvania Arts Commission sponsors this orchestra.

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At Lourdes University it’s also time for a spring concert, this one at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Franciscan Center. Music department chairman Karen T. Biscay will lead the choir, its smaller ensembles Good Company and a new acappella group, Faithful Fusion, in a program of sacred and secular music.

Pianist Olga Topuzova-Meade will accompany and a classical guitar ensemble led by Ken Hummer also is to perform in this free concert. A reception following the concert will help celebrate 30 years of music at Lourdes.

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Toledo Symphony’s Youth Orchestras will wind up its year with a Pops Concert at 6 p.m. Monday in Kobacker Hall of the Bowling Green State University Moore Musical Arts Center. A highlight of the concert will be a presentation of 36 scholarships to members of the Concert, Symphonic, and Philharmonic orchestras. Winners were chosen during auditions in March, run by the Toledo Symphony League, with support from its Remembrance Fund. Names are withheld now because some of the winners have not yet been notified.

The full list will run at ToledOvations@blogger.com in the future.

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A brand new work, the NCCB March composed by Sandusky musician Terry W. Everson, will be a highlight of the North Coast Concert Band performance at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Ernsthause PAC, Norwalk High School, 360 Shady Lane, Norwalk. Joining the band for this free event will be the North Coast Big Band. In the spotlight will be bassoonist Catherine Lewis, to play Carl Maria Von Weber’s Hungarian Rondo. Also planned is music by Leroy Anderson, a medley of Wizard of Oz music, and patriotic favorites.

Send News of Music items to svallongo@theblade.com at least two weeks before the event.