Next Performance
February 2, 2019, at 2:00 pm
February 2, 2019, at 5:00 pm
Park Avenue Chamber Symphony
An InsideOut Concerts(tm) Production
Ligeti | Atmosphères
Holst | The Planets
Featured Recording
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring/The Firebird / David Bernard / Park Avenue Chamber Symphony
February 2, 2018
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
Stravinsky The Firebird Suite, 1919 Version
David Bernard leading the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony
Latest News
ARTSDESK CD REVIEW: Stravinsky The Rite of Spring / Firebird Suite (1919): Park Avenue Chamber Symphony conducted by David Bernard
“The playing is impressive, and the lean, clear sororities are an asset…the finer details hit home with pleasing immediacy under David Bernard’s baton..this performance is a zinger. I’d never noticed things like the clashing semiquavers and triplets in the “Dance of the Earth” before…it’s very well played…”
TIME AND SPACE IN HOLST'S THE PLANETS
In 1949, the Austrian/American Mathematician Kurt Gödel used Albert Einstein’s equations from the General Theory of Relativity to prove the non-existence of time. In this proof, Gödel showed that within universes governed by the General Theory of Relativity, the past and the future could exist simultaneously. According to Gödel, “if time travel is possible, then time itself is impossible. A past that can be revisited has not really passed. Time is either necessary or nothing; if it disappears in one possible universe, it is undermined in every possible universe, including our own.”
Buried within the seven sound worlds that comprise The Planets—the angular driving energy of Mars, the gentle mysticism of Venus, the playful brilliance of Mercury, the gregarious optimism of Jupiter, the austere introspection of Saturn, the mischievous confidence of Uranus, and the boundlessness of Neptune—are references to both the past (Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice) and the future (Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and John Williams’ Film Music for Star Wars and Harry Potter).
Attendees of the premiere of The Planets in 1918 experienced the past and the future simultaneously in the present, perhaps disproving the existence of time almost as effectively as the possibility of people completing a sufficiently long round trip in a rocket ship in Gödel’s universe traveling back to any point in their past.
As a result, Holst not only transports the listener to points beyond our familiar existence on Earth through distinctive use of color and masterful narratives, but also allows us to experience a few brief moments of eternalism where his masterful reinterpretation of the past, and his impact on the future of classical music intersect in a powerful musical temporal anomaly.
In 1949, the Austrian/American Mathematician Kurt Gödel used Albert Einstein’s equations from the General Theory of Relativity to prove the non-existence of time. In this proof, Gödel showed that within universes governed by the General Theory of Relativity, the past and the future could exist simultaneously. According to Gödel, “if time travel is possible, then time itself is impossible. A past that can be revisited has not really passed. Time is either necessary or nothing; if it disappears in one possible universe, it is undermined in every possible universe, including our own.”
Buried within the seven sound worlds that comprise The Planets—the angular driving energy of Mars, the gentle mysticism of Venus, the playful brilliance of Mercury, the gregarious optimism of Jupiter, the austere introspection of Saturn, the mischievous confidence of Uranus, and the boundlessness of Neptune—are references to both the past (Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice) and the future (Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and John Williams’ Film Music for Star Wars and Harry Potter).
Attendees of the premiere of The Planets in 1918 experienced the past and the future simultaneously in the present, perhaps disproving the existence of time almost as effectively as the possibility of people completing a sufficiently long round trip in a rocket ship in Gödel’s universe traveling back to any point in their past.
As a result, Holst not only transports the listener to points beyond our familiar existence on Earth through distinctive use of color and masterful narratives, but also allows us to experience a few brief moments of eternalism where his masterful reinterpretation of the past, and his impact on the future of classical music intersect in a powerful musical temporal anomaly.
