Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #21stcenturysymphony
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Nine symphonies, nine composers, one orchestra: @kennethwoods & @EnglishSymphony's wonderful #21stCenturySymphony project passes the halfway mark in style. Hear some of its richest and most moving musical bounty so far on my spellbinding #RecordOfTheWeek. spoti.fi/3yvEo5F 
Adrian Williams dedicated his symphony to Kenneth Woods "for giving me hope". With five premieres and four recordings to its name already this project gives me hope that it will banish the baffling (to me anyway) idea that no one wants to write, play or hear new symphonies today.
The symphony opens with an arresting theme on violins and violas whose first three notes (E♭ - F - C) are soon driving the thematic and harmonic progress. I quickly realised that here was a true symphonic architect: this expansive 50-minute four-movement structure never falters.
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1/ On Wednesday I went to a wonderful concert by @EnglishSymphony and @kennethwoods. What a thrill to hear real symphonies played live in a real hall with a real audience for the first time since March 2020. I spent the whole afternoon grinning from ear to ear behind my mask!
1/ On Wednesday I went to a wonderful concert by @EnglishSymphony and @kennethwoods. What a thrill to hear real symphonies played live in a real hall with a real audience for the first time since March 2020. I spent the whole afternoon grinning from ear to ear behind my mask!
2/ We began with music by @emily_doolittle, a composer new to me. Woodwings is based on birdsong from Canada, the country of her birth. Cool, fresh and well-ordered in the first of its five short movements, it evolved into wild and free twilit fantasy by the last. Most effective.
3/ Originally for Wind Quintet, this was the first performance of Doolittle's own arrangement for 10 winds and bass made especially for @EnglishSymphony. An excellent curtain-raiser, the northern saw whet owl and friends certainly whetted my appetite. emilydoolittle.com
