MUSIClassical ALLEGRO
Topic: NEWS performers
Mother and son join the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for a stirring rendition of Felix Mendelssohn's vision of Shakespeare's woodland fantasy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky (pronounced sitt-kuh-VETT-skee) leads the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and his mother, legendary pianist Bella Davidovich, who will perform Schumann's beautiful Piano Concerto while Sitkovetsky himself takes center stage as soloist on Bach's Violin Concerto No. 1. The concerts take place in Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center on Friday, January 4 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, January 5 at 8:30 p.m.; and Sunday, January 6 at 3 p.m. Famed Russian pianist Bella Davidovich performs Schumann's Piano Concerto. Celebrating her 80th birthday in 2008, she began studying the piano at the age of 6. At 18 she entered the Moscow Conservatory and, in 1949, became the youngest pianist to win the prestigious Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. She has been touring for more than half a century since then, performing with the most well-known orchestras and conductors around the world. She has performed with her son Dmitry Sitkovetsky since 1966, and the pair has recorded sonatas together by Grieg, Brahms and Ravel. 
1907 Birth of Dutch conductor and composer Willem van OTTERLOO in Winterswijk. d-Melbourne, Australia 1978. Director of Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. 
If you are a classical music lover who is your favourite composer?
Our annual retrospective of the major figures in classical music who left us during the year is especially significant for 2007 with the list including the deaths of four of the world's most honored and respected performers: tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Jerry Hadley, cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and soprano Beverly Sills. 
"Hark! The herald angels sing, 'Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!'" The author of that immortal Christmas carol is himself commemorated today on the 300th anniversary of his birth. Charles Wesley, Anglican and co-founder with brother John of the Methodist movement, was born Dec. 18, 1707, in England. He is regarded as one of the greatest hymn writers of all time, according to the Charles Wesley Society, an ecumenical group formed to study Wesley's poetry and prose through music, theology, history and literature. 