Devin Patrick Hughes on Arapahoe Philharmonic's New Season
The new season of the Arapahoe Philharmonic promises to have something for everyone. I find symphonic music to be the most colorful, enriching, and soul-filling medium on the planet! From our classics series’ featuring Galactic Melodies and Myths, Scotch on the Strings, and Maestros of the Classroom, to our pops concerts featuring holiday film scores to Independence Day celebrations, all the way to our world music themed Discovery concerts, on behalf of the musicians, staff, and board of the Arapahoe Phil, I couldn’t be more excited to share with you our performances and welcome you into our family!
Galactic Melodies and Myths
Robert Schumann claimed of Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony “about many things in this world there is simply nothing to be said—for example, about Mozart’s C-Major symphony with the fugue, much of Shakespeare, and some of Beethoven.” There truly are no words to express some concepts, which is why we have music and art.
The two most fascinating aspects of Mozart’s 41st Symphony (along with 39 and 40) include the fact that we don’t know the occasion for which they were composed, nor if Mozart ever even heard them during his lifetime, and the inventive madness with which Mozart composed the last movement. Finishing a symphony with a fugue was truly a stroke of genius. Although Mozart would have likely borrowed this idea from the likes of both Haydn’s (Michael and Franz Joseph), the sheer excitement and ecstatic energy with which Mozart brings his symphonic oeuvre to a close is unparalleled, and is something to marvel at both from the standpoint of the performers and audience.