The Rochester Symphony Orchestra presents JOURNEYS OF LIFE.

Join Music Director Zeljko (Bill) Milicevic as he conducts the RSO in this opening concert of the ’25-’26 season. “Hope and Gratitude” features compositions from four Russian composers: Mikhail Glinka, Sergei Prokofiev, Alexander Borodin, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Glinka’s rollicking Overture to “Ruslan and Ludmila” is a popular concert opener. The opera itself, though full of evil kidnappers, wizards, talking heads, and magic swords, is so complex it is rarely performed outside of Russia. But you will love the Overture. Next, Prokofiev’s “Lieutenant Kije Suite” pokes fun at military bureaucracy. A “SNAFU” necessitates the death (with honors?) of a soldier who never existed. The concert mood changes with Borodin’s “In the Steppes of Central Asia.” Here Russian and Asian cultures are represented by two tribes, one observing the passing by of another. Horns represent the stately Russian caravan in its march-like progress. Strings represent Asians with contrasting gentle and mysterious tones. Finally, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor –the PATHETIQUE–takes center stage. In Russian, “pathetique” means “passionate” or “emotional.” Tchaikovsky is said to have been so moved by this work that he cried while composing it. We are further moved when we learn that he died of cholera only nine days after conducting the symphony’s premiere performance. Finally, the symphony speaks to all of us in its portrayal of the journey we all make to find meaning in life despite the inevitability of death.