Given our disdain for Mozart, it is a blessing in disguise that The Florida Orchestra had to change its Masterworks Opening Night lineup after featured pianist Ivan Moravec cancelled due to medical reasons. Replacing Wolfgang's planned piano concerto are two of Gabrieli's 16th-century antiphonal brass arrangements, glorious short snippets of holy song, especially the Canzon Duodecimi Toni. The second half of the replacement set is a bit less inspiring, Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Trumpets in C major featuring trumpeters Robert Smith and Kenneth Brown. The full orchestra then cranks up Shostakovich's anti-German/anti-Stalinist World War II statement, Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad." Stefan Sanderling conducts. Sat., Oct. 7, 8 p.m., Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, and Sun., Oct. 8, 7:30 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, $17-$52, 800-662-7286, www.floridaorchestra.org.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2006.
