Jan. 8
THEMES AND VARIATIONS
Symphony Joslyn
Joslyn Art Museum’s Witherspoon Hall,
2200 Dodge St
Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets: $33.
Musical satire bubbles, spins and wheels in an English work whose inspiration was an earlier more lyrical composition by another Englishman. So sounds Benjamin Britten’s 1937 angular yet loving “Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.” Britten, born about 35 years after Bridge, studied with the older man, but always choose to go in his own direction. Of course. Hence the new work struts with an angular march, dislocates the idea of a Viennese waltz and evokes a nervous fugue. Times change. Paired with it come more familiar variations, by Brahms, those circling around a theme attributed to Haydn, born ca 100 years prior. Schubert’s charming, Rossini-sparked 6th Symphony rounds out the pleasures. Welsh conductor Paul Watkins leads the Omaha Symphony