The Columbus Symphony Opens a New Season LIVE on WOSU 89-7

[video is dead] All of the Columbus symphony's Saturday night Classical Series concerts are broadcast live on WOSU 89-7 FM and streamed on the web at this web site ( okay, www.wosu.org) The opening broadcast is this Saturday, October 2 at 8 PM. Gunther Herbig conducts an all Beethoven Program: The Symphony 6 Pastoral and the Violin Concerto with Augustin Hadelich Beethoven had a good year in 1808. Although his deafness was increasing, he was still able to function as a musician. That would begin to change a few years later.  On December 22 of that year the composer was able to conduct the first performances-on the same program!- of not one but two symphonies, his fifth and sixth. Performances in Beethoven's day were generally under rehearsed and thrown together-rehearsal then and now were expensive, as was the ink for the copyists and all the ancillary costs surrounding arts events. (There has never been enough money for the arts, even for a Mozart or a Beethoven. Don't get me started). So premiering two symphonies on the same program may have been cost effective. It also may have been because Beethoven knew that the only things these works had in common were that they were both symphonies by Beethoven. The fifth has always had that "fate knocking at the door" stuff going on: [youtube N6K_IuBsRM4 490 344] Okay, I know I could have selected a more recent performance, but if you want to point out Beethoven's morbidezza in the fifth, then don't miss Toscanini. And now, you haven't. Here, by contrast is the opening movement of the sixth [youtube -bbinrDGNJw 490 344] There's still plenty of tension, but there are more 'resting' points for the listener. It is a more peaceful experience, lulling, gentle and intrinsically melodic. The glories of the fifth symphony lie in its rhythms, the sixth in its tunes If the fifth is about drama and struggle, the sixth is about the natural world. It is Beethoven's only example of program music. He used detailed descriptions of each movement and illustrated them with music: Awakening of Cheerful Feelings Upon Arrival in the Countryside; Scene by the Brook; Merry Gathering in the Country; Thunder Storm;  Shepherds Song, Happy and Thankful Feelings After the Storm. Here's the 4th movement (allegro) Thunder Storm: [youtube ND_SJ_6JHx0 490 344] Even this stormy sections lacks the drama and  tension of the fifth symphony, and that's deliberate. Beethoven was invoking nature in the sixth, which he deeply loved and clearly where he felt safe, rain or shine. Beethoven remarked that some of his happiest hours were spent walking in the wood at Heiligenstadt, outside Vienna, notebook in hand, jotting down musical themes as they came to him. He was also influenced by another symphony, by one Justin Knecht, and if their two works have nothing in common musically (or else Knecht would be a household word...try Googling him) Beethoven did use the written "beautiful countryside-nature-storm" descriptions, which presumably Knecht had written down for himself. Beethoven's only violin concerto is an island post Mozart and Haydn and 00000178-6a23-ddab-a97a-6a3b5b360000pre Mendelssohn. Look it up: plenty of great musicians will tell you Beethoven's  is the finest violin concerto of  all. It was premiered in 1806 and was written for a young man whom Beethoven had considered a protege, the violinist Franz Clement (1780-1842) Clement was a young boy when he first played for Beethoven.  Later on he wrote to the young violinist, "Nature and art have combined to make a great artist of you. Follow them both and never fear, you will reach greatness, the highest goal an artist can desire in the world. All my good wishes for your happiness, dear child, and come back soon, so that I can hear your clear, magnificent playing once again." A few years later Beethoven got his wish. He and Clement went over the [caption id="attachment_14731" align="alignright" width="69" caption="Franz Clement, Beethoven's violinist"]00000178-6a23-ddab-a97a-6a3b5b370000[/caption] Violin Concerto together, but it wasn't finished. In fact, it apparently wasn't finished on the first night  (December 23, 1806) Never mind. The orchestra might have to stumble along with wet, smudged and incomplete parts, but Clement understood  Beethoven was trying to d Nevertheless, he went his own way. The premiere was chaotic and not a success. Audience members resented Clement's hot dogging. There's a legend he played a sonata of his own between the first and second movements of Beethoven's concerto, and that he played this sonata perfectly with the violin upside down. We don't know if the composer reacted. It sounds like a situation where any artists would 'blow' but there's not a word about Beethoven himself on this night. t could also be that composer had his own inside joke with the saucy show off of a young violinist. The quicksilver descending fourth that opens the finale is a tease, and a delight [youtube IygKcGyhjbI 490 344] Sensation he may have been but it was clear that Beethoven had young Clement's "number". The Columbus Symphony presents its music adviser Gunther Herbig [caption id="attachment_14733" align="alignright" width="100" caption="Gunther Herbig"]00000178-6a23-ddab-a97a-6a3b5b380000[/caption] conducting these concerts. A protege of Karajan's in Berlin, Maestro Herbig has brought us wonderful performances of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Mozart in recent seasons. He is a slightly 'under the radar' type personality. He's all about the music, and his music making is splendid. No hot dogging for him. He finds all the splendor, drama and beauty in the music put before him...and us. The young Augustin Hadelich plays the violin concerto in Columbus. He's well on his way,with significant recordings and a busy schedule. Hadelich was born in 1984.  He'll be the fire to Herbig's marvelous authority and the Columbus symphony's beauty. Here's a look at Hadelich [youtube hYLFcGSmhZ8 490 344] Maybe he'll give us Zapateado as encore in Columbus. It's opening night, after all.  Come in person if you can. I give pre- concerts talks on the 4th floor mezzanine of the Ohio Theater one hour before every classical series concert. Or listen Saturday night live (!) on 89-7 FM WOSU. On with the season! --Christopher Purdy