Pueblo Symphony

Following a brief pause, cellist Bryan Scafuri took the stage, and enchanted the audience with a very emotional interpretation of Kol Nidrei, composed for cello and orchestra by Max Bruch in 1880. Scafuri’s soulful performance beautifully illustrated the nuances of the cello’s sound. Violinist Daniel Brandt roused everyone with an earlier work of Bruch, Violin Concerto No. 1, a highly diverse piece with sweet slow melodies followed by a fiery, virtuosic cadenza. It was a brilliant piece, brilliantly performed.

Two standing ovations and an encore followed Dr. Zahari Metchkov’s performance of Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. His solo encore piece, a prelude by Claude Debussy, was in stark contrast to the concerto: where the concerto was loud, the prelude was soft; the fire in the first piece was replaced with tenderness and care in the second. To end the night, the Izotovi returned to the stage to perform with the symphony Camille SaintSa

