Haydn Voyages: Inhale, Exhale
The fall return of Haydn Voyages series is an adventurous mix of old and new. Haydn will be joined on this concert by two of today’s most compelling composers: Hannah Lash (her 2009 work Frayed) and a world premiere by Joshua Roman, commissioned for the Hausmann Quartet. Beethoven turns 250 this year, but his music sounds as fresh, experimental and powerful as ever; his Serioso quartet anchors this program’s exploration of contrast, breath, tension and release. The season opens with an evocative California adventure featuring a mix of music, pairing two Haydn masterpieces with works suggestive of our own time and place. Terry Riley’s Good Medicine Dance is the final segment of his epic Salome Dances for Peace, which updates the legend of Salome to today (or at least to 1987). Caroline Shaw’s Valencia is an ode to the common supermarket orange, but also in the composer’s words “a kind of celebration of awareness of the natural, unadorned food that is still available to us.” Refreshments will be available at the upper deck bar starting at 3 pm, as well as after each concert for a chance to mingle with performers and audience members. Each creative program will also include informative and entertaining commentary between selections from noted UC Santa Barbara musicologist Derek Katz.