Like the evening spread out against the sky, the music in this album is spread out over countless national boundaries. These are memorable melodies by some of the world’s foremost composers, performed with taste and virtuosity under the sure hand of Alfredo Antonini. The pervading mood of the program mirrors the calm, reflective aura of the evening. Evening blossoms forth with the expression and imagery of Frederic Chopin’s Polonaise In A Flat. This stately dance form of Polish ballrooms is captured on the larger canvas of the symphonic orchestra that blends bravura piano passages with a glowing ensemble sound. (Jascha Zayde is the piano soloist.) Another impressive concert piece follows – Sir Edward Elgar’s lilting melodic inspiration La Capricieuse. (George Ockner contributes the violin virtuosity.) The eloquently tender title tune, Evening Song, by Prince Louis Ferdinand is next, dispensing lyric enchantment in the best romantic vein. Then the lilting fascination of a Minuet weaves its way through the Antonini orchestra. It’s the immortal melody by Luigi Boccherini, a movement from one of his string quintets, that has proved to be the most durable of his creations. The graceful and inventive French Chaconne by Marie Auguste Durand closes the side in another ingenious orchestration of an ancient dance form. A light and capricious ballad with fleeting impressions of early Fall opens the second side. Maestro Antonini has skillfully interpreted in a playful dialogue of orchestral voices the autumnal mood set forth by American composer Harry Huffnagle. (The flute soloist is Julius Baker.) The solo role in the next selection is played by the renowned concert cellist, Lucien Schmit. The sensuous melody is Jules Massenet’s Elegie, ideally suited for the expressive facilities of the ‘cello. The season then changes to Winter, embodied in a miniature tone poem called Winter Lullaby by Polish composer, Jan Ekier. The tender measures of its evocative oboe melody recall the imposing beauty of a snowclad landscape. Tender and soft-voiced, too, is Adagio, a noble melody of solemn, classical beauty, by Arcangelo Corelli, the great seventeenth century master who is often called the “father of string music.” Evening Song closes with a sentimental message that is an album-leaf from the past, composed by the German romantic composer, Hugo Kaun. This tune, Albumblatt, is still another example of masterful ensemble playing by Alfredo Antonini And His Orchestra.