Valses Nobles et Sentimentales harkens back to Schubert, who published two sets of waltzes entitles “noble” and “sentimental.” Ravel combines both in his set of waltzes, though his modernist musical language, rife with dissonance and extra chord tones that create unique sound colours, could not be further from Schubert’s classical style. Michael Berkovsky then performs George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin’s most famous piece, it ushered in a new era of American music, infusing Black musical idioms into concert music by making use of the blues scale, derived from the African practice of using “blue” or “bent” notes, typically represented by lowering the 5th or 7th scale degrees, and folk-like syncopated rhythmic motifs. Scriabin’s symphonic Poem of Ecstasy concludes the program. Scriabin, who suffered from synesthesia, associated notes with different colours, and this work makes prominent use of a variety of different sound colours, including whole-tone scale, as well as harmonies developed from Scriabin’s signature “mystic chord.”

Kristian Alexander | conductor
Michael Berkovsky | pianist
Daniel Vnukowski | host

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

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