The first performance of the New York Philharmonic’s “Music of Conscience” events—three weeks of performances, exhibits, and discussions exploring how composers have used music to respond to social and political issues of their times—will feature Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”), led by Music Director Jaap van Zweden, on May 22. The Shostakovich work was written “in memory of victims of fascism and war” when the composer visited Dresden after it was bombed in World War II; Beethoven, who originally dedicated his “Eroica” to Napoleon Bonaparte, later denounced him as a “tyrant” after Bonaparte crowned himself emperor. Beginning May 30, the orchestra will perform John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1, the composer’s “personal response” to the AIDS crisis and inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt. On June 6, the Philharmonic will premiere David Lang’s opera prisoner of the state, with a libretto that references Beethoven’s Fidelio, about a woman trying to rescue her husband from unjust political imprisonment. The New York Philharmonic Archives exhibit Music of Conscience: The Orchestral World Responds is on display May 16-June 8 at David Geffen Hall. Click here for more about “Music of Conscience.”
Posted May 21, 2019
In photo: Image from the New York Philharmonic’s “Music of Conscience” series of performances and events this May and June.
