Mistral’s 26th season culminates with four ravishing orchestral works in new chamber arrangements performed without a conductor. The 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: Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, and the beloved Sicilienne from Gabriel Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande. All the arrangements are by Parisian oboist David Walter, whose Scheherezade was commissioned by artistic director Julie Scolnik for this concert.

For this ambitious program of fourteen, Mistral welcomes back two Mistral wind players, NYC oboist Kemp Jernigan and clarinetist Todd Palmer, and eight Boston Symphony members: violinist Julianne Lee, violist Danny Kim, cellist Will Chow, trumpeter Michael Martin, trombonist Steve Lange, horn player Rachel Childers, and percussionist Daniel Bauch.  Bassoonist Sam Childers, Mistral violinist Sarita Kwok, artistic director and flutist Julie Scolnik, longtime Mistral bass player, Don Palma, and newcomer harpist, Charles Overton, will complete the cast of fourteen!

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 relationships 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

FAURÉ: Sicilienne from Pelléas et Mélisande      

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, trumpe;t Daniel Bauch, percussion; Charles Overton, harp