Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic to Present Bruckner Symphony No. 8 In C Minor

    BOSTON, MA, November 09, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Benjamin Zander, Music Director and Conductor of The Boston Philharmonic, is excited to present the orchestras November concert series featuring 19th century Austrian composer Josef Anton Bruckner's landmark Symphony No. 8 in C Minor on November 18 and 21 at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge and November 20 at Jordan Hall in Boston.

The 85-minute-long Symphony No. 8 in C Minor is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. Bruckner's powerful music together with Benjamin Zander's emotive and intense direction of the Boston Philharmonic will lead concert-goers on an intense and amazing musical journey. A world-renowned motivational speaker as well, the passionate Zander is sure to give his audiences transformative insights about Bruckner and the Eighth Symphony, with his speeches at each of the concerts.

Zander's affinity for the music of Bruckner is a matter of public record, as witness the rave reviews that all his Bruckner performances have received over the years. In addition, his 2009 Grammy nomination of his Telarc recording with London's Philharmonia Orchestra of the Bruckner Fifth sold double the number of copies of any other Bruckner recording in a the past two years alone [around 8,000 copies!].

The Eighth Symphony uses a gigantic orchestra, featuring a 19-piece brass section capable of splitting open the heavens. A spiritual journey beginning in darkness but ultimately leading to a triumphant ending, the Eighth Symphony was not well liked by late 19th century Brahms followers. Perhaps Bruckner's daring and unexpected harmonies were ahead of their time. Brahms called Bruckner's music symphonic boa constrictors, swindles that will soon be forgotten! Bruckner had a nervous breakdown in the midst of writing his 8th Symphony and nearly drove himself to suicide; he was prone to depression, nervous collapse, and progressive heart failure, especially in the face of criticism by other composers.

But it is in his last completed symphony, the Eighth, that Bruckner's grand musical vision achieved its most spacious and perfect form. In an almost alchemical way Bruckner's humble Catholic faith combined with a sense of musical form and logic different from anyone else's to create musical designs of a vastness and sublimity that are utterly unlike anything that came before. Bruckner's originality is actually shocking. For most of the last century the composer was spoken of in the same breath as Mahler, but the two are quite different in a fundamental sense. Mahler wrestled with God most of his life, and in some of his symphonies attempts to take heaven by storm. Bruckner, on the other hand, seemed to regard heaven as his natural province, and when his music approaches those gates he seems to have not a moments doubt but that they will open of their own accord. And they do, in the sublime Adagio that lies at the heart of his Eighth Symphony. Bruckner moves from one tableau upwards to the next in an attempt to depict musically, with the greatest vividness and explicitness, spiritual truths of which he is absolutely sure.

There was a time, not long ago, when the symphonies of Bruckner were a staple of the concert repertoire. Now, they are heard less frequently, perhaps because in their very certainty they seem out of step with our anxious and doubt-ridden times. But the tenor of the times gives us all the more reason to perform a work like the Bruckner Eighth, that can provide us all, if only for a while, so much solace, consolation, and hope.

Concert tickets priced at $75.00, $55.00, $35.00 and $15.00 for Thursday, November 18 at 7 pm at Sanders Theatre [45 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA] and $85.00, $65.00, $45.00 and $25.00 for Saturday, November 20 at 8 pm [with pre-concert talk beginning at 6:45 PM] at Jordan Hall [30 Gainsborough Street, Boston] and Sunday, November 21 at 3 pm [with pre-concert talk beginning at 1:45 PM] at Sanders Theatre are on sale now at www.bostonphil.org. Discounts are available to WGBH members, students and seniors. For full information, call 617-236-0999 or visit www.bostonphil.org.

Other concerts this season include:

Concert Series #3:

Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasy
Szymanowski: Second Violin Concerto featuring Ilya Kaler, violin
Elgar: Enigma Variations

This concert program takes place:

Thursday, February 24, 2011, 7:00 PM, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Saturday, February 26, 2011, 8:00 PM [with pre-concert talk beginning at 6:45 PM], Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory of Music, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA 02115
Sunday, February 27, 2011, 3:00 PM [with pre-concert talk beginning at 1:45 PM] at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, 02138

Concert Series #4:

Shostakovich: Second Cello Concerto featuring Natalia Gutman, cello
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet

This concert program takes place:

Saturday, April 30, 2011, 8:00 PM, [with pre-concert talk beginning at 6:45 PM] Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Sunday, May 1, 2011, 3:00 PM [with pre-concert talk beginning at 1:45 PM], Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory of Music, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA 02115
Monday, May 2, 2011, 7:00 PM at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA, 02138

Sue Auclair Promotions is a public relations and marketing firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, contact us at 617-522-1394 or at http://www.sueauclairpromotions.com.

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