An Evening in Paris

March 5th - 8pm

Tanya Bannister Piano

Mozart Symphony No. 31, "Paris"

Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2

Ravel Pavane for a Dead Princess

Stravinsky Pulcinella Suite

Join us in the First Niagara Community Room for Classics in the Evening, a pre-concert talk hosted by Brian Hannah before every Symphonic concert starting at 7:15pm.

Springtime in Paris! We will look at the special relationship that some of our most important composers had with the City of Lights.  Mozart wrote to his father that he expected the Parisians to erupt in applause during the performance of his Symphony No. 31.  Frederick Chopin remains to this day one of the most important French musical voices from the 19th Century, and his rhapsodic 2nd Piano Concerto is the perfect vehicle for rising pianist Tanya Bannister, who has already recorded an acclaimed version of that very concerto. Maurice Ravel is perhaps best known for his effervescent, brilliantly detailed music, but in this Pavane, he shows us his deft touch for a simple, haunting melody played by a single French horn.  Enfant terrible Igor Stravinsky set the Parisian ballet world on its ear more than once, and we are pleased to round-out our evening with this stylish, wonderfully intriguing ballet music from Pulcinella, a 1920 nod to a bygone era of Neapolitan commeddia dell’arte.