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A mighty choir and orchestra reverberate in John Adams’ visceral tour de force, Harmonium.John Adams’ fierce, propulsive tour de force, Harmonium, has become one of today’s most iconic choral works. Setting poems by John Donne (Negative Love) and Emily Dickinson (Because I could not stop for Death, Wild Nights), it embraces an ocean of feeling, with unparalleled emotional intensity. John Adams calls Harmonium ‘a secular cantata’, and it demands a large and fearless choir; we’re thrilled it will be conducted by the equally fearless Alice Farnham, rekindling her close relationship with Brighton Festival Chorus.
Avril Coleridge-Taylor’s sensuously dark tone poem Sussex Landscape was composed soon after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Following in her father Samuel’s footsteps, Avril was a composer, conductor and musical activist, living out her long life in Buxted. Joanna MacGregor plays Beethoven’s most lyrical, searching piano concerto, with its revolutionary opening and slow movement battle between soloist and orchestra – famously described as ‘Orpheus taming the Furies.’
This performance of Avril Coleridge-Taylor’s A Sussex Landscape is made possible with funding from the ABO Trust’s Sirens programme, a ten-year initiative to support the performance and promotion of music by historical women composers.
‘The brio and edge of Alice Farnham’s conducting…vivid, classy playing.’ – Opera Magazine
‘My works are profoundly affected by American popular music, jazz, ragtime, swing, rock…my personal style does not deny its roots.’ – John Adams
The Listening Club: Join Joanna MacGregor at Brighton Unitarian Church on Thu 14 Jan, 6pm, for a one-hour, illustrated lecture delving deeper into the concert. Find out more.
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Brighton Dome, Church Street,Brighton and Hove, Brighton, United Kingdom
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