Lesher Center for the Arts
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Pictures from Paris
Presented by California Symphony
- Date: -
- Location: Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive
Walnut Creek, California 94596 - Introduction: Ravel’s Boléro leads off a trio of orchestral showstoppers to open the new season.
Maurice Ravel — Boléro
George Gershwin — An American in Paris
Modest Mussorgsky — Pictures at an Exhibition
WHAT'S INTERESTING ABOUT THIS CONCERT
- Ravel’s mesmerizing Boléro builds from a whisper to a triumphant climax as two beguiling melodies are shared throughout the entire ensemble in the first of three orchestral showstoppers on the 2025/26 season opener.
- Jazz meets Classical in Gershwin’s An American in Paris, which paints a vibrant picture of bustling boulevards, blaring taxi horns, and even a drunken tourist stumbling down the street.
- Mussorgsky wrote Pictures at an Exhibition for piano, but the version you’ll hear is Ravel’s famous update for orchestra, which showcases the French composer’s unmatched ability to use the orchestra as a palette to create rich textures and vivid imagery.
approx. 1 hour 30 minutes, with one 20-minute intermission
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