Utah Symphony Performs at USU Nov. 15

University Thursday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. Music director, Thierry Fischer, will lead the symphony in Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. 

“The Caine College of the Arts is thrilled to bring the Utah Symphony back to the Daines Concert Hall,” Craig Jessop, dean of the Caine College of the Arts, said. “This is the perfect venue for the symphony to perform in and we are delighted to bring another outstanding concert to the Cache Valley audience.” 

Fischer has been the music director of the Utah Symphony since 2009. In April 2016 he took the orchestra to Carnegie Hall for the first time in 40 years, has instigated a major commissioning program and has recorded CDs of contemporary repertoire and Mahler symphonies. 

Instrumental concertos are a mainstay of music from the Classical and Romantic eras. The traditional three-movement solo concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and later composers are a form that did not yet exist in the Baroque era, when the term “concerto” first became commonplace. The term was in use as early as the beginning of the 17th century, but had no definite meaning. Through its etymology we know that it was applied to musical works with groups of instruments playing together in concert. By the time Bach was writing music, a concerto could be almost any piece of music played by more than one instrument.  

According to tradition, Bach composed the Brandenburg Concertos as an unsuccessful job application. We can trace their origins back to 1719, when Bach needed a new harpsichord. On his way to order the instrument in Berlin, he took the opportunity to perform for the margrave of the region, Christian Ludwig. This produced the desired effect, and Margrave went on to commission several works. 

Tickets for the concert are $5-30 and free for USU students, faculty and staff. For more information and tickets, contact the CCA Box Office in room L101 of the Chase Fine Arts Center on USU’s campus, call 435-797-8022, or go online to cca.usu.edu.