Asuite drawn from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty ballet opens the season; this music will likely be most familiar from the Walt Disney film of the same name whose score—including the famous “Once Upon a Dream” song—was adapted from Tchaikovsky’s ballet. Award-winning Canadian cellist Winona Zelenka performs Dvořák’s Concerto for cello and orchestra. Though Dvořák was initially resistant to the idea of writing a cello concerto, as he felt it would not make for a good solo instrument, this work has since become one of the most popular works for cello. A typical three-movement Romantic concerto, the music includes pentatonic melodies similar to those in his famous “New World Symphony,” as well as quotes from one of Dvořák’s own songs as a tribute to his ailing sister-in-law. Concluding the performance is Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo’s final orchestral composition, the Symphony in G minor. The work, a typical romantic-era symphony, features an opening theme that recurs over the course of all four movements, creating a cyclical symphonic form on the largest scale.

Tchaikovsky, The Sleeping Beauty suite

Dvořák, Concerto for cello and orchestra

Lalo, Symphony in G minor