About

Symphonic Dances was the only score Rachmaninoff completed in America, and a welcome return to form after quitting composition in frustration after 1936. Honegger’s symphonic “drama” is a highly personal response to World War II and features three symbolic “characters” – misery, happiness, and man. Jazz and classical composer Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis takes us on a sonic trek through the Canyonlands in a work commissioned and performed by concertmaster Madeline Adkins. Rachmaninoff’s last major work was a set of “Fantastic Dances” for orchestra that he hoped would be set as a ballet. Maestro Thierry Fischer conducts.