With the premiere of a nebulous, esoteric piece and a dark, densely sobering Brahms concerto behind him, Music Director and Conductor Mark Russell Smith picked up the microphone to address the audience before the second half of the Quad City Symphony's November 1 concert at the Adler.

The audience was likely looking for some emotional relief, but Tchaikovsky's Pathetique symphony loomed, with its morose "Finale" - creating the potential for a depressing albeit well-performed concert.

Smith set an optimistic tone. He called the Pathetique "Tchaikovsky's greatest symphony" - pointing out the "life lived" through this music and focusing attention on its innovations.

His words were the right message at the right time. In framing the concert's centerpiece, Smith helped pull the audience through the performance, allowing it to appreciate the trio of challenging pieces without getting sucked under by bleakness.

Halloween is an opportunity for people to try new identities, so it's appropriate that the Quad Cities-based band The Candymakers is marking the release of Ridiculicious with a pair of All Hallows' Eve shows at the Redstone Room.

Yes, the group will be wearing costumes. But Ridiculicious is such a radical departure from its predecessor that it feels like an entirely new - freer and better - ensemble. Using the same musical building blocks, the band has transformed itself largely by stripping the material of any pretense of nutritional value; one could say it's found its wheelhouse by sticking to the spirit of its name.

The Quad City Symphony had to contend with a last-minute change in soloists - and the piece he was playing - for the opening Masterworks concert of its 100th season. But the orchestra on October 4 dug deep to unearth world-class playing to match legendary pianist André Watts - and in the process seemed to exhaust itself. With a popular symphony and the world premiere of a commissioned piece in addition to a piano concerto with Watts, the intensity and high artistic level of playing were exhilarating to hear, but the orchestra didn't sustain them in the second half of the program.

By design, the opening three tracks of Muddy Ruckus' self-titled debut are meant as an introduction.

But it might be more accurate to say that they're a reintroduction - particularly for the Quad Cities. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Ryan Flaherty hails from these parts, and the album and a September 19 performance at Rozz-Tox will show what he's been up to in the decade-plus since he left.