On the program recorded the weekend of January 11 through 13, we’ll be hearing a work written in 2013 by Missy Mazzoli called Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres). Missy Mazzoli is in her second season as composer in residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

We’ll also hear the Symphony Number Two by Johannes Brahms and the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Jean Sibelius with soloist Simone Porter.

Santa Rosa Symphony music director Francesco Lecce-Chong has known Simone Porter since she was 17. Six years later, he loves listening to the musician she's become. 

The second half of the program features the Brahms Second Symphony. 

In the preconcert talk, music director Francesco Lecce-Chong said that Brahms is his favorite composer. He loves the elegance and richness of the composer’s music, and the interplay of instruments that makes him one of the great orchestrators.

The difficult birth of the composer’s First Symphony is often contrasted with the seeming painlessness of the Second Symphony’s creation. The Symphony Number 1 had taken two decades to complete – by the composer’s account. The second was the work of one summer.

Join us at 3 pm on Sunday, February 2 for the broadcast, hosted by KRCB News Director Steve Mencher.