Larger than Life

A delightful duo for violin and viola by Czech composer Martinů opens tonight's concert. We then go to the opera with Giovanni Bottesini, the virtuosic "Paganini of the double bass", and also a great operatic conductor, who directed the premiere of Verdi's Aida in Cairo in 1871. Lastly, a sweeping chamber showpiece by the prodigious E.W. Korngold, written (like Ravel's famous concerto) for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein.