Camille SAINT-SAENS Danse macabre
William POPP The Galleries (World Premiere)
Sergei RACHMANINOFF The Isle of the Dead
Franz LISZT Hunnenschlacht (Battle of the Huns)

This Liszt and Rachmaninoff concert commemorates composers who created symphonic poems from thought provoking paintings. Inspired by Böcklin’s painting of a small boat on the unwelcoming sea near an island, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead portrays the menacing waves concluding with a jubilation of reaching the island. Franz Liszt’s victorious Hunnenschlacht was devised from Battle of the Huns painting. Camille Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre portrays the skeletons dancing on their graves with unique usage of the xylophone for clattering bones. Finally, the YSO is a proud to perform the world premiere of William Popps’ The Galleries.