🚀 go-pugleaf

Two giant steps for man – and some crazy driving

In their first concert of the 2009–10 season the Cambridge Philharmonic
Society play the work of two innovative composers (Beethoven, Adams),
both of whom, though nearly 200 years apart, managed to change the face
of music in their time.

John Adams’ breakthrough work, "Harmonium", had its premiere in 1981 and
demonstrates the style for which that composer has become well-known.
Setting the words of John Donne and Emily Dickinson for voices and
orchestra, Adams’ music is fresh, sonorous and minimalist, encompassing
many moods in a work of freshness and originality. Commentators have
described the effect as a seascape, a rolling tide of wonderful musicality.

Adams’ popular "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" is even more exhilarating
- from the very first entry of wooden blocks and brass to the final
standstill screech. It is fiendishly difficult to play, with its
repeated notes and pulsating rhythm, but it is intensely musical and
perfectly encapsulates Adams’ laconic “You know how it is when someone
asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you
hadn’t?” Audiences always thrill to this bravura work of dazzling
excitement, safe in the knowledge that it is not THEM in the passenger seat!

And then, in the second half, the orchestra will play Beethoven’s mighty
Eroica symphony. It was originally dedicated to the ‘heroic’ Napoleon
Bonaparte, though when the French leader had himself made emperor,
Beethoven scratched out his dedication in anger and gifted the symphony
to another patron. But whoever it was for, this work, premiered in 1805,
marks a huge shift from the classical symphonies of the 18th century to
the great symphonies of the 19th that would reach their apotheosis in
Beethoven’s own mighty choral work – the ninth. And what a shift it is.
The awe-inspiring funeral march of the 2nd movement, the syncopated
rhythms and the weighty scherzo make this one of the most widely loved
and admired works ever written. Riding in a fast car may be scary, but
listening to the Eroica is just as exciting, taking the listener on a
deeply affecting journey. It is challenging, moving, and in the end,
profoundly life-affirming.

The Philharmonic’s first concert of the season is a perfect blend of the
new-old and the old-new, a fascinating mixture of ground-breaking works,
and a breathtaking journey into the heart of music. Fasten your
seatbelts and enjoy the landscape as it rushes past!

Tickets (£10, £15, £20) can be bought online at 
http://www.cam-phil.org.uk 

and are also available from the Cambridge Arts Theatre Box Office, 
St Mary’s Passage, Cambridge (tel: 01223 503333)

West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, Sunday 25th October, 7.30 pm.
Conductor: Timothy Redmond