Important! Due to overwhelming demand, our recent email has exhausted its supply of seats for this Friday’s performance.
Standard seats are still available for the Wed 30 Mar and Sat 2 Apr performances.

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony sees him at his most obsessive – an entire symphony that’s driven by rhythm and pulse, music to get you on your feet. Some people hear it as a wild orgy of sound; Wagner recognised that it was thrilling enough to set everyone dancing. Even when the music slows down, it possesses an inexorable power that has always had audiences coming back for more.

John Adams takes Beethoven’s idea of hypnotic repeating patterns to the next extreme. The result is minimalism: pulsating effects and rhythmic energy in a familiar harmonic soundscape. Harmonium, for chorus and orchestra, adds three visionary poems from John Donne and Emily Dickinson to the mix, building to a “bright, vibrant clangour” and the intoxication of love.

Between these two ecstatic pieces is a moment of singing perfection for the strings of the Sydney Symphony – immeasurably sad, utterly elegant.

BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7
BARBER Adagio for Strings
ADAMS Harmonium

Edo de Waart conductor
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

These performances mark the 30th anniversary of Harmonium, which was dedicated to Edo de Waart.

Pre-concert talk by Robert Murray in the Northern Foyer at 7.15pm.

AUDIO PLAYER LISTING

Track 1 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7: 1. Vivace
Track 2 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7: 2. Allegretto
Track 3 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7: 3. Presto
Track 4 – BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7: 4. Allegro con brio
Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON ELOQUENCE 429 0362

Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.
Beethoven available for purchase here.