Featuring awe-inspiring masterpieces connected by a theme of finality, Dudamel Conducting Fellow, Chloé Dufrense guides a lyrical and surprised filled concert. Gabriel Fauré wrote Masques et Bergamasques Suite late in his life in 1919.  It’s his last composition for full orchestra, and its melodic and harmonic sophistication are a testament to his uncanny ability to evoke beautiful musical moments.  Mozart’s always popular Violin Concerto No. 5, “Turkish,” was the last full concerto that he would write for the instrument.  Filled with freshness and lightness, and some splendid surprises, it stands as one of his finest compositions from his last years in Salzburg before moving to Vienna for the rest of his life. D’un Matin de printemps (“Of a Spring morning”) was French composer Lili Boulanger’s last piece that she was physically able to write in her own hand in 1918, before she succumbed to a fatal gastro-intestinal disease.  And yet, far from dark, D’un Matin de printemps radiates with crackling energy and the abounding joys of an emerging Spring.  Haydn’s extraordinary last symphony, his No. 104, “London,” may be the pinnacle of the Classical era’s symphonic genre. By the time of its premiere in London in 1795, this delightful, humorous, clever, and gorgeous symphony illustrates Haydn’s indisputable mastery of the form.

© Max Derrickson