Paul Polivnik makes a return appearance in the spring to conduct Pro Arte in a powerful program of Ravel, Bernstein, and Mendelssohn.

Maurice Ravel dedicated each movement of his colorful Le tombeau de Couperin to a different friend who died in World War I. But as a twentieth-century emulation of the Baroque dance suite, the work also pays tribute to French composers of the eighteenth-century, such as the eponymous François Couperin.

Far from being a strictly liturgical setting, Leonard Bernstein’s Mass is an elaborate theatrical production for hundreds of singers, instrumentalists, and dancers. Bernstein created his evocative Three Meditations, featuring cellist Leo Eguchi, out of the most prayerful and passionate moments from his eclectic score.

Felix Mendelssohn’s talents as a prodigy are on full display in his boldly confident First Symphony, composed when he was only fifteen. Although he was inspired by Mozart and Beethoven, the symphony bustles with a stormy energy that is characteristically Mendelssohnian.