It is an international meeting of culture when the American symphony, the Chinese Chairman Mao and Danish Simon Steen-Andersen all are represented at a symphonic concert in Aarhus next week.
The Canadian conductor Julian Kuerti will lead the audience through a concert performed by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra with works by John Adams, Simon Steen-Andersen and Aron Copland. The composers and works have been chosen carefully in order to connect them in one way or the other.
Copland’s Symphony no. 3 is seen as the “great American symphony” and America is where Canadian Kuerti has conducted many Boston Globe concerts. Kuerti lives part time in Berlin, where Steen-Andersen also lives. Steen-Andersen’s work Ouvertures samples speeches by Chairman Mao and the same Mao is the focus of Adams’ work The Chairman Dances. It all comes together in this symphonic concert Thursday January 17, 2013 at 7.30 pm in Aarhus Concert Hall.
Simon Steen-Andersen’s work Ouvertures (2010) is composed for the Chinese instrument gu-zheng and the first version of the work was premiered at Shanghai Spring International Music Festival in 2008 and won the prestigious award “Rostrum” in Lisboa in 2010. For this concert Chinese soloist Liu Le is flown in to perform the work together with Aarhus Symphony Orchestra.