California Symphony: Pictures from Paris

Description

California Symphony opens its 2025-2026 season with PICTURES FROM PARIS, featuring three iconic orchestral showstoppers to transport you to the vibrant artistic world of 1920s Paris. Conducted by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera, the orchestra performs Maurice Ravel's hypnotic Boléro, George Gershwin's jazz-infused An American in Paris, and Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in Ravel's brilliant orchestration. 

French composer Maurice Ravel’s mesmerizing Boléro from 1928 builds from a whisper to a triumphant climax as two beguiling melodies are shared throughout the entire orchestra in what became the composer’s most famous piece. Jazz meets classical in American composer George Gershwin’s An American in Paris, also from 1928. Gershwin described the piece as an effort to “portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere.” Gershwin and Ravel shared a musical friendship, meeting in Paris in 1926, with Gershwin later being instrumental in bringing Ravel to tour the U.S. Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky wrote Pictures at an Exhibition for piano in 1874 as a musical depiction of the paintings of artist Viktor Hartmann, but the version featured in this program is Ravel’s famous update for orchestra from 1922, which showcases his unmatched ability to use the orchestra as a palette to create rich textures and vivid imagery. 

California Symphony takes the stuffiness out of the concert experience: Take selfies at the photo booth, order a signature cocktail, and sip at your seat. Tickets include a free 30-minute pre-concert talk by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera, starting one hour before the show.

https://www.californiasymphony.org/shows/pictures-from-paris/