Three things to know:

1. Conductor Andrey Boreyko returns to Southam Hall to lead a program celebrating the ravishing sounds of the NAC Orchestra's woodwind players.
2. Works originally written for solo piano and string quartet by Maurice Ravel and Dmitri Shostakovich take on new life in vivid arrangements for orchestra.
3. The NAC Orchestra's Principal Bassoon Darren Hicks showcases his instrument's versatile voice in André Jolivet's Bassoon Concerto.

Composed as the First World War raged across Europe, Maurice Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin reaches across time to honour the popular dances of 18th-century composer François Couperin. Although Ravel originally intended for the work to be a celebration of French musical traditions, his music of wistful melancholy and glittering colours ultimately blossomed into a heartfelt tribute to the friends he lost on the battlefields of the Great War.

Dmitri Shostakovich's Third String Quartet takes on new life as a chamber symphony—featuring strings, harp, and solo woodwinds—arranged by the composer's close friend Rudolph Barshai. A testament to the feelings of grief and loss that echoed around the world in the aftermath of the Second World War, Shostakovich offers a deep meditation on innocence, war, and oppression in an emotional music journey from youthful optimism to heart-racing terror.

And Darren Hicks, the NAC Orchestra's Principal Bassoon, steps into the spotlight to perform André Jolivet's haunting concerto for solo bassoon and orchestra—a work of devilish difficulty that showcases the full range of the instrument's character, which alternates between operatic lyricism and florid feats of virtuosity.