Expressive Soloist Elissa Koljonen

Will Help RSO Honor Louise Peck

RIDGEFIELD — Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra’s next concert will feature violinist Elissa Lee Koljonen with music by Brahms, Dukas and Beethoven on Saturday, December 2, at 8 pm, at Ridgefield High School. The concert will be the second in the “Visions and Visionaries” series, which honors Louise Peck, whose life was devoted to the support of many local cultural organizations including the RSO.

Elissa Lee Koljonen has an abundance of critical acclaims. “What you heard [about her playing] was delicately chiseled Beethoven projected with a pure, sweet tone and ineffable candor,” wrote The Miami Herald in 1995. [Koljonen] presented Mozart’s Violin Concerto in all the necessary sound colors and emotional contrasts wrote Kurier,” a Vienna paper, in 1996. Ms Koljonen is certain to add more superlatives to her repertoire as she performs Brahms’ Concerto for Violin in Ridgefield.

“The Brahms Concerto is one of the greatest pieces in the solo violin literature. It is very symphonic in character, and I look forward greatly to playing it with the RSO,” said Ms Koljonen.

Also on the program is Dukas’ “Fanfare” from La Peri and Beethoven’s The Pastoral Symphony (No. 6), selected by Maestro Rothstein to honor Louise Peck.

“Dukas’s Fanfare comes from a larger work, a ballet written in 1912, and this is how the RSO regards the enormous generosity of Louise; she deserves a fanfare,” explained Maestro Rothstein. The Pastoral Symphony was chosen to honor Ms Peck’s ardor for conserving the environment.

The work provides a virtual vacation from the winter’s cold with its lovely birdcalls (flute, oboe and clarinet imitate nightingale, quail and cuckoo), murmuring brooks, exhilarating storm sequences (trombones and piccolo added to strings) and other joys of the natural world. Beethoven gave this symphony its name of pastoral because to him, like to Ms Peck many years later, nature made life more meaningful.

The RSO “Visions and Visionaries” performance will be in the Anne S. Richardson Auditorium at Ridgefield High School on Route 116 (North Salem Road). Seating is reserved and tickets, available for $25, $30 and $35, can be purchased at Ridgefield Music Store or by calling Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra at 203/438-3889.