New England Conservatory's Symphony and Biss

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Hours:	8:00 pm start time
Ages:	Kids, Teens, Adults
In/Outdoor:	Indoor
Cost:	Free
Category:	Music & Concerts

Violinist, violist and conductor Paul Biss leads the NEC Symphony in colorful, familiar works for orchestra by Liszt and Dvorak. In between, he directs the 1986 Symphony No. 1 by Christopher Rouse. According to the composer, the initial impetus for the work came from the desire to use in a new context an excerpt for strings which he had composed 10 years earlier. 'Though this music had originally been composed in response to a dream, I came to associate it with the Pieta and came to refer to it frequently by that name,' Rouse explains.

It was not until he began writing down the symphony that he 'realized it to be something of a companion work to Gorgon (1984). At first glance, however, the differences between these two scores might seem to outweigh the similarities. Gorgon is an astringently dissonant, entirely fast-paced orchestral showpiece, while the symphony is cast in the form of a single-movement adagio of considerable proportions whose overall language is largely tonal in its orientation. Both, however, are works of the blackest night, with Gorgon's exorcistic rage here replaced by a mood more somber, even tragic, in tone. Both works, moreover, concern themselves with a series of human issues which have increasingly occupied my thoughts over recent years. In a sense, Gorgon and my first symphony are a kind of yin and yang, very different responses to essentially the same stimuli. The piece is dedicated to Rouse's friend and fellow composer John Harbison. It won the prestigious Kennedy Center Friedheim Award in 1988.

Liszt: Les Préludes, S.97 (Symphonic Poem No.3)
Christopher Rouse: Symphony No. 1
Dvorák: Symphony No.8, op.88, B.163, G major

WEBSITE

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necmusic.edu/nec-symphony-biss

LOCATION

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30 Gainsborough St, Boston, MA, 02115 map

NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St, on the corner of Huntington near the YMCA