Mississippi Symphony Orchestra returns to Duling Hall, October 10, with “Fearless Fusion” to once again claim the frontier of contemporary classical music. The convivial, social air of Duling Hall, with food and bar options, promotes a free, lively vibe that puts listeners and performers closer than ever for this one-of-a-kind concert experience.
What’s to discover there? Another brilliant, boundary-breaking landscape of music, full of unexpected delights and riveting intrigue, served up by more than a dozen standout MSO musicians.
The recent 21st century pieces on the concert program buzz with interest. There’s Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte, by turns mesmerizing and surprising, plus, trumpet virtuosity meets deep, soul-stirring resonance in the mosaic mingle of Caleb Hudson’s Nothing Less.
In the evening’s second half, embark down a rabbit-hole of fun with Gabriella Smith’s Brandenburg Interstices, which nods to Bach of course but goes so many other eye-opening places along the way. Keep going with Erbeck Eryilmaz’s Thracian Airs of Besime Sultan, a vacation for your ears with its telling inspiration from the traditional music of Thrace (Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania).
While there are thrilling, “out there” forays in these compositions, they are grounded, too, in the music and traditions that have come before them. The familiarity of that landscape serves as both a launching pad and comfort zone.
It’s reassuring, too, about the future of contemporary classical music and MSO Conductor Crafton Beck feels it.
“When I was a young man, I despaired over the state of serious music, of concert music, which we call classical music,” Beck said. “I wasn’t excited about the music that I heard in the world declared to be the modern music of the 1970s and ’80s. I thought it was ugly.
“It was the famous 20th century modern music that we don’t play anymore – atonal, overly complex and more intellectual than emotional. Much of it failed to connect or resonate with the public plus the challenges from popular music, mass media music, movies and TV didn’t help.
“Something had to happen. Serious music had lost its way,” Beck continued.
Thankfully, something did happen.
“What’s been so exciting in my professional lifetime is that, led by Americans and starting in the 1970s and ’80s with minimalism, a new direction in contemporary classical music spread to Europe. Everything changed. It’s now much more approachable, much more beautiful, much more accessible.
“It’s just an endless making of music by, yet now, the second or third generation writing in that style,” Beck said.
They carry it forward. We carry it to you.
“It’s just lovely stuff.”