By William R. Wineke
Special to Channel 3000

The Madison Symphony Orchestra brought famed violinist Pinchas Zukerman to headline its weekend series of concerts Friday night -- and then stole the show away from him.

It's not that Zukerman, who is making his fourth appearance with the MSO (previously, in 1974, 2001 and 2007) wasn't a star. The capacity audience in Overture Hall cheered his interpretation of Mozart's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.

It's just that when the orchestra, accompanied by Samuel Hutchison on the hall's pipe organ, blasted through Camille Saint-Saens' "Organ Symphony," the audience almost leaped to its feet collectively before the piece ended.

The symphony features piano and organ, timpani and trumpet and ends, in the words of J. Michael Allsen, who writes the program notes, "in joyous fury."

So the orchestra almost overshadowed Zukerman -- but not quite.

After four decades on the concert stage, Zukerman, 60, can handle an audience. The Mozart concerto calls for a reduced-size string orchestra and Zukerman conducted the orchestra as well as played the solo parts.

Possibly, the most difficult role of the evening belonged to Zukerman's wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth, however.

Although she has an international reputation in her own right, Forsyth is, let's face it, married to one of the most celebrated musicians in the world. She also has white-blonde hair that falls almost to her waist and was wearing a cream-colored evening gown Friday.

Why do those observations make her job difficult? It was difficult because she played Max Bruch's "Kol Nidrei." The Kol Nidrei is the prayer recited in the synagogue at the beginning of the evening service of Yom Kippur. It is, then, a very, very somber concept, one you usually don't think of in connection with a blonde artist in an evening dress.

It's a testament to Forsyth's artistry that, within moments of her beginning notes, the entire hall seemed to echo the strains of a synagogue prayer as the haunting notes of her cello transported the audience into a new level of consciousness.

Zukerman and Forsyth also joined the orchestra in another Saint-Saens piece, "The Muse and the Poet," which also brought the audience to its feet.

So, the Friday night audience gave Zukerman a standing ovation, Zukerman and Forsyth a standing ovation and the orchestra a standing ovation. Three in one night is unusual, even for the normally enthusiastic MSO audience.

The concert will be repeated Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.