BSO sells Rouse's Flute.(ARTS & CULTURE)(MUSIC)

0 Comments | Washington Times, The, March, 2008

Byline: T.L. Ponick, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Under the baton of Music Director Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra opened its current program Thursday evening at the Music Center at Strathmore, featuring the Flute Concerto by contemporary American composer and native Baltimorean Christopher Rouse along with two popular works by Ludwig van Beethoven.

It has become standard practice for many symphony orchestras to bookend a contemporary work with more traditional fare, the better to avoid empty-seat syndrome. Hence, Thursday's concert presented the Rouse concerto flanked on one side by Beethoven's stirring "Leonore" Overture No. 3 and on the other by his immortal Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67.

However, the BSO's audience needn't have...