For decades, the magnificent Variations on a Theme by Haydn by Johannes Brahms has been an audience favorite and runs the gamut of human emotions from sorrow to sadness, from joy to jubilation. The animated, tuneful music of György Ligeti’s homeland Romania is put on display in this short virtuosic concerto for orchestra, Concert Românesc. Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major with its graceful, lilting melodies is brought to life in the hands of SCSO Principal Cellist Stephanie March. The performance opens with Vienna’s most famous female composer of the 18th-century, Marianna Martines and her groundbreaking Overture in C, likely the first symphony written by a female composer.