3 Questions: John Harbison on his sixth symphony
This week the Boston Symphony Orchestra undertakes the world premiere of John Harbison’s sixth symphony, which it commissioned with the encouragement of its famous former conductor James Levine, a longtime supporter of Harbison’s work. Harbison, an Institute Professor at MIT, wrote the symphony in 2011, and spoke this week with MIT News about the nature of the piece and the effort it takes to compose a major new work. Q. One distinctive aspect of your new symphony is that it begins with a song based on James Wright’s poem, “Entering the Temple in Nimes.” You’ve said that the poem, to you, represents “steadfastness and endurance.” Could you say why, thematically and musically, you decided to start it this way? A. It represents a little bit more explicitly what I thought was the subject matter of the symphony. The commissioner of...