John Adams’ Critically Acclaimed Harmonielehre to be Recorded Live During Nashville Symphony Performances on October 4-7
Concerts also feature the return of soloist James Ehnes on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
Nashville, Tenn. (Sept. 27, 2018) — The Nashville Symphony’s 2018/19 Aegis Sciences Classical Series resumes on October 4-7 at Schermerhorn Symphony Center, as Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero and the orchestra perform American composer John Adams’ Harmonielehre. To be recorded live for worldwide release on Naxos,Harmonielehre has been hailed as “rapturous” and “incandescent” by The New York Times, and it kicks off a dynamic program that blends old and new classical repertoire.
Following the Adams piece, GRAMMY®-winning violinist James Ehnes takes the spotlight as the featured soloist on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. This will be his second visit to the Schermerhorn in as many years, following a dazzling performance of Britten’s First Violin Concerto in October 2017.
Great seats starting at only $20 are available through the Nashville Symphony’s Classical Cornucopia promotion, and the Symphony’s Soundcheck program offers $10 tickets to students in K-12, college and grad school. Date night packages – which include two tickets, two glasses of wine and Goo Goo chocolates – are also available.
About the Program
Adams, who has multiple GRAMMY® Awards as well as a Pulitzer Prize to his name, is widely considered one of the country’s preeminent composers, and his career has been marked by a number of trailblazing contributions to orchestral and opera music. He penned Harmonielehre in 1984 while serving as conductor-in-residence with the San Francisco Symphony, and the work has since ascended to revered status, earning a spot in The Guardian’s list of the 50 Greatest Symphonies.
The title of the piece is a reference to a textbook written by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, who pioneered the 12-tone compositional technique in the 1920s and served as an influential figure of sorts to Adams, despite the fact that the younger composer professed a disdain for 12-tone music in general. For Adams, the wordHarmonielehre came to mean “a psychic quest for harmony,” and the three-movement work draws equally on 19th century Romanticism and the 20th century Minimalism.
Hailed as one of the most beautiful and beloved of all concertos, the Beethoven Violin Concerto had an inauspicious beginning, as the composer wrote it fairly quickly in 1806 and completed it just two days before its premiere. According to legend, the original soloist Franz Clement didn’t even have time to rehearse and was forced instead to sight-read the work onstage. Though now considered a standard of the orchestral repertoire, it would take another 40-plus years for the work to gain popularity. The concerto is a departure of sorts from the ‘heroic’ style that defines Beethoven’s middle career as well, exhibiting the composer’s more lyrical and contemplative side.
The Canadian-born Ehnes began studying the violin at age 4 and made his orchestral debut with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal when he was only 13. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism and an unfaltering musicality, he is a favorite guest of many of the world’s most respected conductors. He has appeared with leading symphony orchestras in both Europe and the U.S. and also maintains a busy recital and chamber music schedule.
His extensive discography includes a Gramophone Award for his live recording of the Elgar Concerto with Sir Andrew Davis and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and his recording of the Korngold, Barber and Walton violin concertos won a GRAMMY® Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance and a JUNO Award for Best Classical Album of the Year. In 2017, Ehnes premiered the Aaron Jay Kernis Violin Concerto with the Toronto, Seattle and Dallas Symphony orchestras, and he was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the Instrumentalist category later that year.
Tickets for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto may be purchased:
- Online at NashvilleSymphony.org/Beethoven
- Via phone at 615.687.6400
- At the Schermerhorn Symphony Center Box Office, One Symphony Place in downtown Nashville
Additional information, including program notes, a Spotify playlist and James Ehnes’ biography can be found at: https://www.nashvillesymphony.org/beethoven.
The GRAMMY® Award-winning Nashville Symphony has earned an international reputation for its innovative programming and its commitment to performing, recording and commissioning works by America’s leading composers. The Nashville Symphony has released 29 recordings on Naxos, which have received 24 GRAMMY® nominations and 13 GRAMMY® Awards, making it one of the most active recording orchestras in the country. The orchestra has also released recordings on Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and New West Records, among other labels. With more than 140 performances annually, the orchestra offers a broad range of classical, pops and jazz, and children’s concerts, while its extensive education and community engagement programs reach 60,000 children and adults each year.
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