DANCES AND DREAMS at Flato Markham Theatre

A suite 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 Dvoák’s Concerto for cello and orchestra. Though Dvoák 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 Dvoák’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.

Kristian Alexander | conductor Winona Zelenka | cellist Daniel Vnukowski | host

7:10 p.m. Prélude: pre-concert recital. 7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk. Intermission discussion and Q&A with Winona Zelenka and Daniel Vnukowski. Post-concert reception.