Edward Gardner: John Adams’ Harmonielehre

Fri 17 Jul View Venues, Dates & Times

“I’m thrilled to be reconnecting with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,” says Edward Gardner in talking about this concert, which sees him conducting the orchestra in a team-up with an exceptional cohort of young musicmakers. “We have a wonderful, rich, shared history. 

“The young musicians [performing with the orchestra as part of the first-ever CBSO Orchestral Residency scheme] will have played many mainstream works in their colleges and youth orchestras, but to tackle this extraordinary programme together will fill us all with a sense of ambition and pride.”

The ‘extraordinary programme’ to which Edward is referring features three landmark pieces which have redefined orchestral mass and momentum: Edgard Varèse’s boundary‑pushing Ionisation and Amériques, and John Adams’ Harmonielehre. The latter, written in 1985, was described by the composer himself as “a statement of belief in the power of tonality at a time when I was uncertain about its future”.

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