Ravel/Tchaikovsky

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

For the final concert of the season, we bring together works by composers who demonstrate extraordinary strength while confronting extreme emotional pressures.

Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony finds the composer at the height of his creative powers, despite living uneasily in a culture that rejected the very essence of his being. His final composition, the Pathetique, is one of the greatest tragic utterances in the history of music. No degree of familiarity with the work lessens its power to touch us, and it seems to reach places within us that only this work can. -Benjamin Zander

Ravel Daphnis and Chloé, Suite no. 2 - 18 minutes

• According to Maestro Zander "You don't need to know anything about Daphnis and Chloé except that the opening describes dawn and the end describes a great celebration at a marriage."
• Read about the ballet that is based on Ravel's music Daphnis et Chloé
• Listen to the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra perform Daphnis et Chloé live from the Rudolfinum, Prague in 2015
• See the video of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra perform Daphnis et Chloé on the Zander Media Center website.

Arias

• South African lyric soprano, Pumeza Matshikiza will join the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra for a series of Arias.
• Listen to Pumeza Matshikiza on YouTube in a clip from Dvořák's Rusalka

  "With her luscious lyric voice and her superb presence and acting she will certainly be a star." BBC Music Magazine

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 - 46 minutes

• Symphony No. 6 was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s final completed symphony written in 1893. Tchaikovsky titled this piece “The Passionate Symphony” in Russian Pateticheskaya meaning “passionate”. It was incorrectly translated into French as pathétique meaning “solemn.” Thus, it is also known as the Pathétique Symphony.
• The piece did premiere in October of 1893. It was the last of his pieces to premiere during Tchaikovsky’s life.
• Listen to a Symphony No. 6 Conversation between Benjamin Zander and Brian Bell
• Listen to a past Guide to the Music with Benjamin Zander for Symphony No. 6

All dates, repertoire, venues, and artists subject to change.