Architecture and Conversations

Karl Jenkin’s Palladio takes inspiration from the eponymous sixteenth-century architect Andrea Palladio. Jenkins himself notes that “Two of Palladio’s hallmarks are mathematical harmony and architectural elements borrowed from classical antiquity,” and Jenkins himself structures the music based on similar mathematic proportions. Inspired by the famous Brandenburg Concertos, the Concerto in E-flat (Dumbarton Oaks) was the last piece that Stravinsky wrote before emigrating to America in 1939. The piece inspires the idea of a musical conversation, with each of the instruments appearing as its own character. The concert concludes with Britten’s Variations of a theme by Frank Bridge, a set of ten variations written as a tribute to Britten’s teacher; each theme is intended to represent one aspect of Bridge’s personality.