An evening featuring three pieces of classical music with three interesting stories. If you've never encountered a tone poem, you should acquaint yourself with one of Ottorino Respighi's most famous ones—Fountains of Rome (1916), the first from a set of three tone poems that made him famous in the world of orchestral music. In a time where opera reigned in Italy, Respighi set out to bring back the tradition of instrumental music across the country. Composed in 1945 in the US following his emigration after the war Béli Bartóka's Piano Concerto No. 3 is the last work he authored—with the exception of the last 17 beats, which were finished off by a fellow composer. While the first and second concertos were more experimental and rough around the edges, this third concerto leans back into more traditional classic and romantic elements. Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 8 in G-Major (1889) is a sunny and pastoral counterpart to its predecessor, his 7th symphony. It oozes with love towards people, folklore, and landscape, and incorporates some Viennese elements as well with a touch of melancholy and an embedded stormy episode as well, my like Beethoven's 6th symphony Pastoral.