French and German Romanticism – Yonkers Philharmonic

Yonkers Philharmonic under the baton of Maestra Chen presents:

Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante defunte

The strikingly morose title of the work belies its actual inspiration: far from being about death, Ravel stated that ‘When I put together the words that make up this title, my only thought was the pleasure of alliteration’. While it’s literally true that the French should be translated as ‘Pavane for a dead Princess’, Ravel was at pains to point out that it ‘Is not a funeral lament for a dead child, but rather an evocation of the pavane that might have been danced by such a little princess as painted by Velázquez’. His comments went largely unheard, though; even today, many believe the piece to have a quite different meaning from the one the composer intended.

Reinecke’s Flute Concerto with soloist David Ordovsky

This D major concerto stands as nearly the only Romantic flute concerto still in the repertory. That the D major concerto, written in 1908, should be considered Romantic at all is a key to understanding Reinecke’s music, which was very old-fashioned in its day, rooted in the early 19th-century language of Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann.

Cesar Franck’s Symphony in d minor