OK Composer

Critics have often hailed Radiohead’s OK Computer as one of the greatest pieces of popular music of the twentieth century. But how does it stand up next to nineteenth-century classical music? We’ll find out tonight when arranger and conductor Steve Hackman delivers a mash-up of the nineties rock album with Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1.

“The space between classical and pop music is where I’ve always landed,” says Hackman. “I’ve wanted to do a Radiohead arrangement for years, and of all the Radiohead albums, I thought this was the one that fit with Brahms the best. They were both artists in their time who were trying to crystallize a structure that already existed, but they wanted to push the envelope and show their own creativity. And ‘Paranoid Android’ — which is, in my opinion, one of the centerpieces of the album — is in C minor. And the Brahms symphony is in C minor as well. And it’s not that you can’t change keys; it’s just that C minor has a certain feel to it, so they already share that emotional and musical visceral feeling.”

The Music of Radiohead to Brahms begins tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road in Boulder; tickets are $12 to $48. For more information, visit chautauqua.com.

Sun., July 7, 7:30 p.m., 2013