Ravinia 2026 Issue 3

HUNTERPAVILION 7:30 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 14 , 2026 CHICAGO SYMPHONYORCHESTRA STEVE HACKMAN, conductor and creator † ANDREW LIPKE, vocalist † WILL POST, vocalist † KÉREN TAYAR, vocalist † STEVE HACKMAN CONDUCTS HIS BRAHMS X RADIOHEAD RADIOHEAD 7. Fitter Happier from OK Computer BRAHMS RADIOHEAD Symphony No. in C minor, op. OK Computer (selections) I. Un poco sostenuto—Allegro 1. Airbag 2. Paranoid Android 9. Climbing Up the Walls 6. Karma Police 3. Subterranean Homesick Alien II. Andante sostenuto 10. No Surprises – – III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso 5. Let Down IV. Adagio—Allegro non troppo, 4. Exit Music (For a Film) ma con brio 11. Lucky 8. Electioneering † Ravinia debut BRAHMS XRADIOHEAD Brahms X Radiohead is an orchestral synthesis of Johannes Brahms’s First Symphony ( ) and Radiohead’s OK Computer ( ), wherein songs from Radiohead’s seminal album are ex- perienced through the lens of Brahms, drawing upon the latter’s harmony, form, counterpoint, and motifs. is was the rst large-scale work of this type that I endeavored, and what a thrilling process of analysis, discovery, de/re-construc- tion, and creation it was. ese two works share striking and de n- ing characteristics; the most signi cant is their mood of anxiety and brooding pathos. Brahms, unendingly plagued by the shadow of the great Beethoven, took more than a decade to write this symphony for fear of not living up to his predecessor. at pressure is felt in each tight- ly wound measure. For Radiohead, the themes of social alienation, consumerism, emotional isolation, and political turmoil are channeled electrically through every anxious note and lyric of OK Computer . Secondly, both pieces represent “invention within convention”—adhering to existing struc- tures but innovating within them: in Brahms’s case, the symphonic form, and in Radiohead’s, the concept album. Finally, they have distinct musical similar- ities; beyond the fact that both are dense, sub- stantive, and full of rich counterpoint, I heard unmistakably similar melodic and harmonic devices. For example: the iv-I chord progression of “No Surprises” is used by Brahms (with an added sixth, in inversion) in the nal moments of the second movement; or the fact that “Sub- terranean Homesick Alien,” like Brahms’s rst movement, is in / time (rare for an alternative rock song). I took advantage of those similarities in the synthesis, and it is those moments that I ammost excited about. We hear “Subterranean Homesick Alien” over an undercurrent of Brahms’s pedal tones; the stark opening music of the symphony adding to the frenzy of “Paranoid Android”; the nal lyric of “No Surprises” oating over the gorgeous conclusion of the second movement; themes of the third movement evoked in the distance during the experimental middle sec- tion of “Let Down”; and the ostinato bass g- ure of the fourth movement coda providing the rhythmic motor of “Electioneering.” A nal note: some may purport that these two pieces are separated by more than just time. ey may seek to label and categorize them and perhaps judge their respective and comparative values accordingly. I believe that the more we truly understand the creative and technical processes that result in any kind of art—regardless of genre or cat- egory—the more similar they will reveal them- selves to us. –Program notes © Steve Hackman RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 93