The Brno Philharmonic will be live streaming a performance of Brahms’ and Philip Glass’s second symphonies on April 15th. The event will see chief conductor Dennis Russell Davies reunited with Glass’s symphony after many years, and will also feature an interview between the two long-time collaborators. Photo: Philip Glass and Dennis Russell Davies at the rehearsal in New York. Credit: Andreas Bitesnich.
Czech Rep. Mar 25 (BD) – On April 15th, the Brno Philharmonic will live stream a combination of two symphonies, bringing together the 19th and 21st centuries with works by Johannes Brahms and Philip Glass. The orchestra will interpret the 2nd symphonies of both composers, pieces connected by much more than their number.
“This combination is not just a first-rate effort to use identical numbers to make the program look good on a poster,” explained Vítězslav Mikeš, dramaturg of the Brno Philharmonic. “The connection of the two works was guided by a deeper dramaturgical intention. The two composers wrote their first symphonies at a mature age – Brahms at 43 years old, Glass at 55 – and then definitively freed themselves from other influences in their second symphonies, Brahms from Beethoven, Glass from Bowie, to create completely unique works.”
The concert, broadcast from Besední dům, will start at 8pm. During the break there will be a conversation between Philip Glass and chief conductor Dennis Russell Davies, two musicians who have been creating together for the last 40 years. Adding to the uniqueness of the event is the fact that Davis has not conducted the 2nd Symphony since the 1990s, and will now revisit the piece with the Brno Philharmonic.
Brahms Symphony No. 2, which will begin the show, also marks a pivotal moment in the composer’s body of work, “summarizing all the essentials that Brahms tended towards – perfectly fulfilling the ideal of music as an autonomous and self-sufficient art, and thus representing a return to the classical style of absolute music,” said Mikeš.
The broadcast begins on Thursday, April 15th at 8pm, and can be watched on the Brno Philharmonic Facebook page or YouTube channel, or at this link.
