Exhilarating music to show off an orchestra of virtuosos.
Gordon Kerry takes it as a great compliment to be sharing this program with Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, not just because he adores Bartok’s music but because in many respects both composers are trying to do the same thing.
Kerry’s Symphony “will be celebrating the orchestra in its unity and diversity” and that’s what Bartok does too. Both composers provide moments of glory for individuals in the orchestra, some of our fantastic soloists, and then there’s the way they take the orchestra apart and put it back together again. Everyone is given a cameo role in music that shows off the orchestra as individuals and as a first-class ensemble.
Between the musical drama of Kerry and Bartok sit the vivid images of Grainger’s In a Nutshell suite – from the kind of melody you might hum while waiting for a sweetheart, to the world of the music hall and a larrikin march. It’s tuneful music dressed up in Grainger’s spicy orchestrations.
This is a concert that reveals the immense variety of colours and sounds that are possible when you put a symphony orchestra in the spotlight.
KERRY Symphony PREMIERE
GRAINGER In a Nutshell
BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra
Nicholas Carter conductor
Benjamin Northey has had to withdraw from these concerts for personal reasons. We are grateful to Nicholas Carter for stepping in at very short notice.
Pre-concert talk by composer Gordon Kerry in the Northern Foyer at 5.45pm (25 and 26 May only).
(Tea & Symphony: Grainger and Bartók only)
AUDIO PLAYER LISTING
Track 1 – BARTOK Concerto for Orchestra: 2. Giuoco della coppie
Track 2 – BARTOK Concerto for Orchestra: 3. Elegia
Track 3 – BARTOK Concerto for Orchestra: 4. Intermezzo interotto
Track 4 – BARTOK Concerto for Orchestra: 5. Finale
Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON ELOQUENCE 480 0713
Audio kindly supplied by Universal Music.