This concert features the winners of our annual Young Artists competition. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has a pair of features as well: we open with Albert Roussel’s colorful, impressionistic music for his ballet Bacchus et Ariane. Composed in 1930, the work is based upon the Classical myth of Ariadne, princess of Crete. The most well-known part of the story has her falling in love with the Greek hero Theseus, and helping him to defeat the horrible Minotaur. Ariadne is later abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, where she encounters the god Bacchus (Dionysus) and becomes his queen. The ballet, featuring choreography by Serge Lifar and sets by surrealist painter Giorio de Chirico, was a success, and Roussel published two suites from its score—the music of the suites is largely unchanged from the music of the ballet’s two acts.

After the Young Artist selections, we close with sensuous, and sometimes rowdy music from Manuel de Falla’s Spanish-themed ballet The Three-Cornered Hat which was the result of a commission by impresario Serge Diaghilev for his famous ballet company, the Ballets Russe. The ballet is in two scenes, with Alarcón’s farcical story set as a series of traditional Andalucian dances. The two suites draw on the main musical episodes of these two scenes, and are presented in the order of the original ballet score. The ballet opens with a bold trumpet fanfare, and then more languid music with flashes of humor that sets the scene. The second scene begins with a pair of thoroughly macho flourishes from the horn and English horn and continues in a series of dramatically rhythmic phrases, leading to a furious ending. The ballet closes with the entire ensemble in the Final Dance, a jota with a lively cross-rhythm throughout. The music is alternately light-hearted and dramatic, but in the end brings this set to a joyful conclusion.

The 2024/25 Symphonic Series season is presented by United Grain Corporation.