The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra opens its 31st season with a musical debate between Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner, Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
The KSO will stage a civil, symphonic debate between the two musical parties with director James Cassidy acting as the moderator/conductor.
The KSO plans on digging into music history and the two schools of 19th century composition.
Each composer will offer opening symphonic remarks (Rienzi Overture, Symphony No. 3) and reverse the order of their responses (Five Hungarian Dances, “Prelude and Liebestod”) before each issues brief closing statements (“Ride of the Valkyries,” Hungarian Dance, No. 5).
Much like today’s political leanings, classic audiences, critics and composers supported one camp or the other based on their mutual preference, being actively rebuked by friends, families and collogues for their affiliation.
Brahms and Wagner took their musical inspiration from Beethoven but went in opposite directions.
Johannes Brahms, (1833-1897) championed a more traditional, conservative style of symphonic and chamber music. Contemporaries and followers of this camp included Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim. They preferred the instrumental musical forms (symphony, concerto, sonata, dances) that were handed down to them from Mozart and Haydn, to apply their own innovation and enhancements.
Richard Wagner, (1813-1883) took a different more progressive path, writing harmonically complex, heavily orchestrated, dramatic and epic operas. Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz, though Hungarian and French, were aligned with this new German school.
Tickets are available online at kyso.org or by phone at (859) 431-6216.
