Rachmaninoff & Ravel

Ravel’s homage-with-a-twist to Johann Strauss, Jr. imagines a mid-19th century imperial court with couples dancing and whirling in a voluptuous waltz that ends in a wild, shattering climax. Cellist Sterling Elliott–whose stellar stage presence and joy in music-making—solos in John Corigliano’s Phantasmagoria, a sort of “phantasy” on his opera Ghosts of Versailles, arranged for him by the composer. Rachmaninoff’s kaleidoscopic Symphonic Dances, his last—and many say his greatest—work, includes a haunting alto saxophone, mysterious tubular bells, allusions to Russian Orthodox chants, a thundering Dies irae from the Mass for the Dead, and a shadowy, eerie waltz that seems to echo the darker harmonies of La valse that opens our concert.