When English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) set about scoring his major orchestral suite The Planets in 1914, he could scarcely have imagined that the actual sounds of these spheres could and would be recorded a century later. NASA developed special instruments capable of recording the electromagnetic frequencies emitted by the planets and stars. These sounds are then converted and become audible to the human ear.
In League with Extraordinary Gentlemen is a work for euphonium from composer Peter Graham that features a combination of his two most favourite interests: composition and 19th century adventure novels. What makes this performance special, doubly so, is first that this is the Hungarian première and secondly that the soloist is none other than euphonium virtuoso Steven Mead, who not only commissioned this piece, but was also the soloist at the Osaka world première in 2008.
Reshaping another composer's themes can be tricky, but also rewarding. The Dutch composer, conductor and trombone, flute and euphonium player Johan de Meij (born 1953) was inspired to create Extreme Make-over by the works of the great Russian composer Tchaikovsky, most notably the Andante Cantabile, the second movement of his String Quartet No 1 in D (op. 11), including fragments from his symphonies No. 4 and No. 5 and the Fantasy-Overture Romeo and Juliet.

Presented by: Zugló Philharmonic