Saturday, May 16th
Keppel Auditorium, Salisbury
Fate and Destiny explores profound forces expressed through music, where each composer engages with themes of inevitability, transformation, and triumph.
Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst opens the program with brilliance and kinetic energy. Bursting with color and rhythmic vitality, this compact work evokes the explosive creation of new stars—an apt metaphor for the sudden shifts and unpredictable turns of fate.
The program continues with the world premiere of Farhad Poupel’s Orpheus: Symphonic Variations on Themes by Beethoven. Drawing from Beethoven’s musical language and inspired by the bronze statue of Orpheus outside the Stockholm Philharmonic, Poupel reimagines the myth of a hero whose defiance of destiny has long stirred the artistic imagination. His new work blends Beethovenian motifs into a sweeping symphonic tapestry that reflects the tension between fate and the enduring human will.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 closes the program—a piece often associated with ecstatic motion and relentless forward drive. From the solemn gravity of its introduction to the jubilant propulsion of its finale, the symphony pulses with unstoppable energy, portraying destiny not as a burden, but as a path toward exuberant liberation.