The Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra opens its 39^th season, sub-titled Friends, with a concert of classical-era oriented music.  This concert is entitled Friends and a Game of Cards and features the classical music of Mozart and Rossini, and the neo-classical music of Stravinsky.

For Mozart’s 20^th Piano Concerto, his most important concerto in a minor key, we welcome Ecuadorian-American Washington Garcia as soloist.  Washington studied at the Peabody Conservatory prior to taking a position at Texas State University and is a world renowned pianist. 

The SSO has been exploring the piano concertos of Mozart lately and we continue with this concerto in D minor, which is related to Mozart’s famous opera Don Giovanni in both key and “Storm and Stress” (Sturm und Drang) mood. 

The concert will continue with Stravinsky’s Neo-Classic ballet Jeu de Cartes, or Game of Cards.  It is a light-hearted, tuneful work with friends dealing the cards three times followed by the card games themselves. 

Near the end of Game of Cards Stravinsky quotes Rossini’s Barber of Seville so it is fitting to finish the concert with this fun-filled Overture, which gained popularity through its use in cartoons.