“The Planets”
Buzz Aldrin, the Boston Pops, and Gustav Holst’s
"The Planets"
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Boston Symphony Hall
301 Massachusetts Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
8:00 pm
The culmination of Giant Leaps will be a sonic tour of our solar system — with a special guide: Apollo astronaut and MIT alumnus, Buzz Aldrin. In an exclusive Giant Leaps performance, the Boston Pops will team up with Aldrin to perform Gustav Holst's "The Planets" in Symphony Hall on the evening of June 11.
Holst's seven-movement orchestral suite premiered in 1918. It features an elaborate, unusual score, with movements named for each of the planets. Each movement conveys ideas and emotions associated with the Roman deities for whom the planets are named. For example, "Mars: The Bringer of War" crashes down on us in a brilliantly orchestrated assault of sound, while "Neptune" offers an ethereal, distant, and murky wash of organ music and bass oboes. Our Pops concert will be accompanied by a commissioned celestial video experience.
As the second of only 12 people to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, speaks with special clarity on what he sees in the night sky: the perfect guide to lead us through music, words, and images — to the edges of our celestial neighborhood.
