Joshua Bell, Foreign Affairs at Germantown Performing Arts Center

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2. Joshua Bell, Foreign Affairs

In this blockbuster season ender, IRIS expands its forces to present three spectacular works new to the IRIS repertoire. John Adams helped define the direction of contemporary American music, finding inspiration for his operatic work in historic turning points of the 20th century. The Chairman Dances excerpt from his groundbreaking opera Nixon in China is an exuberant foxtrot for large orchestra, a marvelous synthesis of minimalist style and rhythmic complexity. The night's musical feast continues as IRIS celebrates the return of violinist Joshua Bell, whose fiery technique is perfectly suited to Lalo's rhapsodic showpiece, the Symphonie Espagnole. To close the concert, the captivating power of the Arabian Nights inspires Rimsky-Korsakov to transform the 19th-century fashion of Orientalism into stupendous orchestral wizardry as the tale of Scheherazade explodes in lush, dazzling color.