CLASSICS: FROM SILENCE TO SPLENDOR

For the first time in decades, the monumental Symphony No. 7 by Anton Bruckner will be performed by the Louisville Orchestra. Bruckner seemed to become a composer of symphonies overnight after hearing the music of Richard Wagner for the first time. Following the epic scale of Wagner’s operas and seemingly trying to reach a level beyond Beethoven’s Ninth, Bruckner wrote for huge forces and explored a soundscape that ranged from hushed mystery to terrifying. As the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians writes, “Despite a general debt to Beethoven and Wagner, the ‘Bruckner Symphony’ is a unique conception, not only because of the individuality of its spirit and its materials but even more because of the absolute originality of its formal processes.”

We open with a new work reflecting on the year of COVID lockdown by internationally acclaimed and Rome Prize winner, the composer Christopher Cerrone. The work is a co-commission of the Louisville Orchestra and a World Premiere.

Bass-baritone Dashon Burton has established a vibrant career appearing regularly throughout the US and Europe in favorite pieces, including Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions and the Mass in B Minor, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Mozart’s Requiem.

Concert Program:

Christopher CERRONE: The Year of Silence for baritone and orchestra (LO co-commission, World Premiere)*
Anton BRUCKNER:  Symphony No. 7 in E major

Teddy Abrams, conductor
Dashon Burton, vocalist

* Christopher Cerrone “The Year of Silence”. Adapted from Kevin Brockmeier’s “The Year of Silence”.

BROWN-FORMAN CLASSICS SERIES
CONCERT SPONSORED BY LINDY B. STREET