It is 1930, three years before the Nazi Party took power, and Arnold seems to have it all—an enviable teaching position in Berlin, a much-improved public reception to his new works in the atonal style – and it seems the “Emancipator of Dissonance” has finally found his admirers! At his height of success, a return to tonality would seem ludicrous! Yet, that was to be…

It is 1940, three years before he would succumb to cancer, and Sergei does not have it all. World War II is raging back home, and as a Russian in New York, there is an emptiness that no amount of performing, conducting, or even cherry malted milk floats (his favourite drink!), could fill. He longs to compose, but must pay the bills through piano performance. If only he could return—to Russia, to his self…

Born just a year apart, the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) and Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) could not sound more different. Yet years later, during their refuge in the United States, both yearned for a “return”—albeit expressed in different ways. The Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 symbolizes Rachmaninoff’s long-awaited (and final) return to his beloved homeland, while the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra demonstrates Schoenberg’s allegiance to tradition, through his evolutionary recasting of the Handel original. Join us as the YST Orchestral Institute embarks on a flowing journey of ever-resonant departures, borrowings, and returns.