"Tales from Around the World"

Mistral’s 26th season culminates with four ravishing orchestral works in new chamber arrangements performed without a conductor. Our Season Finale will feature a world-premiere performance of an arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, and will include three beautiful renditions of other tales from around the world that will reveal the beauty and interweaving melodies and harmonies in new ways: Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, and the beloved Sicilienne from Gabriel Faure’s Pelleas et Melisande. All the arrangements are by the noted composer, arranger, and oboist David Walter, whose Scheherezade was commissioned by artistic director Julie Scolnik for this concert.

The original versions of these works boast intimate characters and numerous delicate passages for solo instruments, and they lend themselves easily to these wonderfully transparent arrangements, where the musical interplay of all the parts can be even more deeply appreciated. Besides the thrill of celebrating their value as stunning works of chamber music in their own right, our intent is also to allow their pure sensory beauty to be enjoyed and heard by those who rarely, if ever, have the chance to hear them played by full symphony orchestras.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade (world premiere chamber arrangement by David Walter)
GRIEG: Peer Gynt Suite
FAURE: Sicilienne from Pelleas et Melisande
RAVEL: Mother Goose Suite

Julianne Lee, violin Sarita Kwok, violin Danny Kim, viola Will Chow, cello Donald Palma, bass
Julie Scolnik, flute Kemp Jernigan, oboe Todd Palmer, clarinet Sam Childers, bassoon
Stephen Lange, trombone Rachel Childers, horn Michael Martin, trumpet Daniel Bauch, percussion Charles Overton, harp