September 29, 2004 -

Ottawa, Canada -- Everyone is invited to enjoy a free lunchtime concert with Music Director Pinchas Zukerman leading the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor on Friday, October 8 at 12:00 noon in Southam Hall. The 50-minute concert gives Ottawa audiences the chance to enjoy a preview of one of the works to be performed as part of the NAC Orchestra’s upcoming British Columbia Tour in November.

Johannes Brahms considered the symphony to be the very apogee of orchestral music. It took him 20 years to produce his first symphony, so in awe was he of the musical output of the giant Beethoven who had led the way. What Brahms finally brought forth, after years of agonizing, is probably the greatest first symphony ever written. The mighty opening bars of the first movement herald a work of enormous scope, power and impact, followed by a more relaxed, resigned, though still noble second movement.  What follows is some of Brahms’s most exquisite solo writing – intimate in mood, relaxed, the orchestral colours painted in pastels. A tremendous emotional struggle is unleashed in the Finale, the grandest movement of all – the crown of the whole symphony.

Hear it all for free performed by the full National Arts Centre Orchestra with the legendary Pinchas Zukerman on the podium.

No tickets are required. Just come to Southam Hall at 12:00 noon on October 8. The symphony lasts approximately 50 minutes.

For more information please contact:
Jane Morris, Communications Officer,
National Arts Centre Orchestra
(613) 947-7000, ext. 335
jmorris@nac-cna.ca