OPERATIC RHAPSODIES

One of Ravel’s earliest orchestral compositions, the Rhapsodie espagnole is divided into four movements. The first features a particularly prominent motif comprising pitches F–E–D–C-sharp; the motif is all the more notable in that it returns throughout the three subsequent movements.

While musical Fantasies are traditionally a single movement, Debussy’s Fantasie for piano and orchestra has three; its title instead refers to its cyclic structure: like the Rhapsodie espagnole, it uses the same themes in all three movements.

Richard Strauss’ Le Bourgeois gentilhomme was originally intended to serve as the framing device for his opera Ariadne auf Naxos; when the reception for this structure was mixed, Strauss opted to remove the Bourgeois music and transform it into its own suite.

Kristian Alexander | conductor
Mary Kenedi | pianist
Daniel Vnukowski | host (Classical 96.3 FM)

7:10 p.m. Pre-concert talk
7:20 p.m. Prélude: pre-concert recital.
Intermission discussion and Q&A with Mary Kenedi and Daniel Vnukowski.
Post-concert reception.

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