The Bermuda Philharmonic Society will hold its second concert of the season on Saturday.

The concert will take place at the Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m.

Dr. Gary Burgess, music director, said the programme will open with the Leonore Overture No. 3.

?It is interesting to note that Beethoven wrote three overtures to his only opera Fedelio, sometimes referred to as Leonore,? he said.

?The second offering on the programme will feature Alison Johnstone, in Camille Saint-Saens? Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in A Minor.

?Alison is a Menuhin Foundation teacher and has been a member of the orchestra since she arrived in Bermuda. To her credit, she has produced many fine Bermudian cellists.?

Dr. Burgess said the first half of the concert will close with Beethoven?s Choral Fantasy scored for piano, choir and orchestra.

He said: ?The Choral Fantasy was hastily written to furnish a synoptic finale for the December, 1808 programme, and as such, its various sections review the performing forces used in the evening?s preceding offerings.

?Its usual form my be briefly outlined: a stormy improvisatory piano sole leading to a dialogue between piano and orchestra. ?Out of various melodic fragments, the piano forges a self-contained C major theme. The Choral Fantasy thus moves from individual to the community, solo piano to large ensemble, from the abstract to the concrete, instrumental to texted, and it charts a course from darkness to light, minor to major.

?The text, an ode to music, extols music?s power to transform, uplift and unite kindred spirits.?

Mandy Wong, a Bermudian and no stranger to concert-goers will be the pianist for this performance, said Dr. Burgess, who will conduct the first half of the concert.

?William Thomas, director of performances at the Phillips Academy, will be the guest conductor for the second half,? he said.

?The Misa Tango will be a premier for Bermudan audiences, composed by famous film score writer Louis Bacalov, who has won many prizes and nominations for original soundtracks.

?He won an Oscar for d?Or, Italy?s foreign press award for Nastro d?Argento, BAFTA prize (British Academy for Film and Television Arts) for the film ?Il Postino? directed by Michael Radford and many more.

?During 2000, Deutsche Gramophone released a compact disc of Misa Tango. This recording had been nominated for the 2000 Grammy Awards in the category of classical music.

?For the premier of Misa Tango, the prestigious Phillips Academy?s Chamber Orchestra and the Academy Cantata Singers from Andover, Massachusetts, will join the Bermuda Philharmonic Society on stage, under the direction of Mr. Thomas.

?The mass, Misa Tango, is in five movements, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei. The soloist for this performance will be Krista River mezzo-soprano, Dr. Gary Burgess tenor, and Allen Combs Bondoneon.?

Tickets are $25 and are available at the Visitor?s Service Bureau from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or at the Ruth Seaton James Centre from 7 p.m. on Saturday.