In Thursday’s (1/29) Tampa Bay Times, Jay Cridlin profiles Steve Hackman, “creator of Brahms v. Radiohead, an orchestral mashup of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 and Radiohead’s 1997 album OK Computer.” Hackman, who will lead a performance of the one-hour piece on Friday with the Florida Orchestra, believes that “Brahms and Radiohead are a perfect fit. ‘I think it’s the chromaticism of both, the pathos of both, and the balance and tension and relief of both,’ said Hackman…. Toward the end of Brahms v. Radiohead, Hackman drifts from the dire, desperate Exit Music (For a Film) into the triumphant, hopeful intro to Symphony No. 1’s fourth movement. ‘It’s almost a frightening introduction to the fourth movement, almost like an opera overture, and then (Brahms) moves to a beautiful, regal C-major horn theme,’ Hackman said.… In addition to Brahms and Radiohead, he’s mashed up Coldplay with Beethoven and Bon Iver with Copland, and crafted arrangements of works by artists like John Mayer, Mumford and Sons and Daft Punk.… ‘It’s very important that [Brahms v. Radiohead is] arranged and crafted in a virtuosic way, so that it is worthy of [the musicians’] skills,’ he said.”
Posted January 30, 2015
