Enigma Variations
When
Approximate running time: 2 hours
Venue
Event Notes
ENIGMA VARIATIONS
Friday, November 11, 2022
8PM - Hill Auditorium
Earl Lee, conductor
Phillip Bush, piano
The quintessential work by a quintessentially British composer, Edward Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (popularly known as the Enigma Variations) comprise a collection of musical sketches depicting some of the composer’s closest friends and family. Central to this photo album is the ‘Nimrod’ variation, a subliminal work of ethereal beauty that evokes remembrance and solemnity.
Pianist Phillip Bush takes center stage for the John Adams’ Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?, a scorching piano concerto of diabolical technical challenges that takes as its title an aphorism attributed to Martin Luther. Rounding out the program is Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte for String Orchestra, the ensemble transformed into a wash of pigments and oils as a theme from Haydn’s String Quartet in F, Op. 77 is subject to prismatic expansion.
PROGRAM
Shaw Entr’acte
Adams Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?
Elgar Enigma Variations
Artists & Repertoire Subject to Change.