Concert Nightmare

Are you sure that classical music is not also modern? Or that serious music can’t be fun? That a symphony orchestra is a collection of bores who nurse their instruments and are incapable of smiling? Or are you a honed music gourmand who perceives going to a concert as the pinnacle of pleasure, an explosion of colourful sounds and a complex experience that cannot be put into words? Somewhere in between, perhaps? In any case – you might be surprised. Perhaps you know that composer John Cages’s greatest hit is called (and lasts) 4:33, but it means four minutes and thirty-three seconds of – silence? That the founder of symphonic music Joseph Haydn tunes the violins during the composition itself? Or that our conductor enriched Edward Grieg with soloists on coughing?

With a similar programme (Johann Strauss: Sport polka ...) we’ll try to prove what we’ve been so insistently repeating: that classical/serious music can also be very humorous. (Literally: we’ll also perform Antonín Dvořák'sHumouresque!) In cooperation with our guest/host Peter Harl, and enriched with stage interventions we’re looking into a relaxing and witty musical event.

In 2015, SNG Nova Gorica started working with NOVA Music Association, when the performance Become a Street Lamp (Srečko Kosovel)was accompanied by the NOVA Big Band at the awards ceremony for the Primorska region theatre award Tantadruj. An extremely positive experience led us to planning a joint comical concert with the Nova Philharmonic symphony orchestra that consists of students from music schools and academies, as well as professional musicians, who’ve come together in the desire for a different view into the future mission of music and the popularisation of classical music.