Tuesday, February 16, 2016

John Luther Adams and the Columbus Symphony Happy Hour

The Columbus Symphony presents music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Respighi and John Luther Adams at a Happy Hour Concert Thursday at 6.30 in the Ohio Theater. Peter Stafford Wislon conducts. Admission is free. No tickets needed. Cash bar with free eats.

This weekend's programs adds the Piano Concerto 5 5 by Saint-Saens with Pascal Roge. Friday
Peter Stafford Wilson
and Saturday nights at 8 in the Ohio Theater.



Our own Columbus symphony repeats the wildly successful 'Happy Hour' concert model this Thursday. To white: Free concerts, no tickets needed, just show up. Free eats. Cash bar, and take the brewskies in the theater with you if you want. Loosen your girdle, sit back, imbibe and listen to a wonderful orchestra, YOUR wonderful orchestra play a one hour concert of music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Respighi and John Luther Adams.

John Luther Adams
Who? John Adams the second U.S. president? John Adams who wrote Nixon in China. No. This is John Luther Adams, an American composer born in 1953. JLA is an environmentalist and something of a sound scape artist. Oh, God that sounds like a-tonal noise to me!

No and again No. JLA won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for his one movement symphonic work, 'Become Ocean.' He deserved to win. Adams, who lived in Alaska for many years, takes his inspiration from nature. Big deal.So did Mahler and Bruckner, not to mention Vivaldi. Yes, but none of those worthies wrote music that so depicts space, and silence. If that doesn't make sense to you, check out some of John Luther Adam's musicon youtube. No its not minutes of silence a la John Cage gimmickry. This is music of stars shining, mountains coming into and going out of view, glaciers creaking, rivers rushing, drying and trying to rush aagain. This is not music with the idea of  'babbling'; brooks' but with a spiritual connection to the elements.

John Luther Adams is a sound painter that will take you to the depths of icy water and to the the clouds above them. The Columbus symphony performs his Dreams of White on White this weekend's concerts. Here's a chance to hear a composer literally making waves.



Any large and lusty oorchestra, like our own will revel in the color Rimsky-Korsakov brings to his music. The Capriccio espagnol is the next best thing to sipping an aperitif on the Ramblas while looking at the girls. Respighi, who studied with Rimsky-Korsakov, inherited his masters love for orchestral color. There are those who will tell you he was further inspired by Mussolini's fascisti. I suspect the duce understood the propaganda value of the creative artist. The composer Mascagni wrote a long and boring opera about Nero, clearly meant to flatter the government. Respighi stuck to the eternal city. We'll hear the glamorous Fountains of Rome.





If you've never been to an orchestral concert, this program is for you. Peter Stafford Wilson always condcus with skill and charm. The Columbus Symphony will mesmerize those brought up on Digital-Imax. Go hear some 'live' music. Thursday night is free! The weekend adds a superb French pianist in Monsiueur Roge. Camille Saint--Saens did everythig well, in music (and elsewhere if you believe the strories). Want to know more? Pre-concert talks one hour before the Friday and Saturday perforamnces. I tell secrets!