Westmoreland Symphony's 'Scottish Fantasy' promises romantic date night

Feb. 9—Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra's "Scottish Fantasy" would make for a great date night, promises artistic director Daniel Meyer.

Meyer will conduct as the orchestra takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at The Palace Theatre in Greensburg.

"I conceived this program as a preamble to Valentine's Day," Meyer said. "It's all romantic music, music that has beautiful melodies, music that is very easy to comprehend on first listening."

Guest artist for the evening will be violinist Blake Pouliot, who will perform German composer Max Bruch's "Scottish Fantasy."

"The Bruch is a sequence of really lovely melodies that take you back to the Scotland of ancient times," Meyer said. "There are some bagpipe dances that you'll notice. You'll notice some beautiful long spontaneities for the solo violin.

"It's very much inspired by the rhythms of the dance, and the melodies are like stories woven together," he said.

This will be Pouliot's debut with WSO.

"He's an artist I've been looking forward to working with for a long time now," Meyer said. "He's such a musical storyteller, and I thought this would be the perfect piece for him to make his debut with us."

A Canadian native, Pouliot, 29, began violin, piano and theory lessons at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto at age 7. His debut CD was nominated for a 2019 classical music Juno Award, Canada's equivalent of a Grammy Award.

"He's a very exciting young violinist, and he's really making his reputation in North America," Meyer said. "I wanted to make sure we had a chance to work with him."

The program opens with French composer Maurice Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante défunte."

"The (Pavane) was originally a piano work that was orchestrated by Ravel to feature the luscious qualities of the strings and the beautiful French horn solo. It's a humble and delicate way to start the program," Meyer said.

The closing piece will be German composer Johannes Brahms's Symphony No. 3.

"It has perhaps one of the most romantic and beautiful melodies ever written for cello section in its third movement," Meyer said. "It's turbulent in places, it's passionate in places, it's melodious throughout.

"The third movement is really the most famous moment for cellos to play expressively."

Tickets for "Scottish Fantasy" are $18-$63 and available at 724-837-1850 or west

morelandsymphony.org.

Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .