Maurice Ravel: Rhapsodie Espagnole

Robert Schumann: Concert Piece for Four Horns
and Orchestra, Op. 86

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D Major

Ravel, Schumann, and Mahler highlight SYSO’s winter concert.

Maurice Ravel’s Rhapsodie Espagnole stands unique amongst Ravel’s works in that it is his only piece originally conceived as an orchestral concert piece. After setting out to create an orchestral piece, the composer crafted together four Spanish sketches, including a habanera he had written for two pianos more than a decade earlier, and the product is one of the most colorful and dynamic examples of Spanish orchestral music ever written.

SYSO welcomes the French horns of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra to perform Robert Schumann’s Concert Piece for Four Horns and Orchestra. Schumann’s great love for the horn led him to write numerous works for solo horn and eventually construct this piece for four horns with its festive melodies and jubilant climax.

Also on the program is Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 1. Although the symphony has a troubled history, with a widely negative response at the premiere, it has gone on to become one of Mahler’s most widely-performed works as it pushes the orchestra to the limit from its large and soaring melodies to a somber funeral march that utilizes a dark and distorted version of “Frère Jacques”.