Romantic classics

The Skidmore College Orchestra will perform "Romantic Blockbusters"—Strauss, Respighi, Brahms—Saturday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m. in Zankel Music Center.  

Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks will be "the most challenging Romantic-era composition the Skidmore Orchestra has ever attempted in its 34-year history," says conductor Anthony Holland. The Richard Strauss tone poem, based on the medieval comic character, is considered a masterpiece of orchestral writing.

Also on the program are Respighi's The Fountains of Rome, which has been called "an impressionist painting in sound" that reflects the play of light and water in four famous Roman fountains. The evening's opening piece will be Brahms's Tragic Overture, whose score especially features winds and brass.

Skidmore's orchestra, mixing students along with several professionals, has been conducted by professor, composer, and conductor Holland for many years.  

Tickets, available online or at 518-580-5321, are $8 general admission, $5 for seniors, and free for students.