Demanding. Strenuous. Complex. And ultimately rewarding.
This is how musicians describe Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, arguably the most influential orchestral work of the 19th century and a test for performers on any professional level. The Florida Orchestra and The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay tackle Beethoven’s final symphony in three performances March 27-29 and everyone on stage will steel themselves for the trek.
“To say it’s a big challenge is absolutely right,’’ said TFO Music Director Michael Francis. He’ll conduct Gustav Mahler’s arrangement of the work, which doubles some instruments for a more robust sound. “You do three movements of this huge symphony, and then you have in the last movement what’s effectively a four-movement symphony in itself.’’
Audiences may not be aware of the rhythmic quagmire Beethoven forces musicians into, but getting through this arduous 70-minute opus is never easy, Francis added.
“Beethoven is extremely free with his tempos, and finding the correct tempo relations between each section is very difficult,’’ he said. “Some of his tempo markings are virtually unplayable, so you have to make creative decisions as to what’s possible, to what’s actually playable.’’
Millions of people know the symphony through its concluding Ode to Joy hymn of praise, as excerpts are forever floating in television commercials and movies. Here − for the first time in a symphony − Beethoven introduces the human voice. By 1824, having exhausted what he considered to be the instrumental potential of the genre, he turned to choir and soloists to express his most profound utterance as a symphonic composer.
“It’s my favorite piece of all time,’’ said Heather Mitchell, artistic director of the Master Chorale. “It’s groundbreaking in ways that knock my socks off. It often gets labeled as a ‘scream fest’ because of how strenuous it is to sing … but Beethoven knew exactly what it would take to perform. It’s up to us to tap into our best technique and rely on years of vocal preparation to get through it.’’
The first movement sets the tone, music bordering on a form of abstract expressionism. The quiet buildup of shimmering strings appears as if from a primordial mist, as emerging life, and soon becomes turbulent and forbidding, with an elusive tonal center.
The scherzo – which normally sits in the third slot of a conventional symphony – leverages its rhythmic might as kettledrums announce the strings in down-leaping octaves and agitated counterpoint, all running moto perpetuo from start to finish. Then, we come to the symphony’s core, a sublime adagio, an oasis of calm that removes listeners from what just passed – and what’s about to happen.
The shattering opening of the finale, which ushers in the Ode to Joy hymn, mirrors the unsettled dissonance of the first movement but with a fusillade of sopranos, altos, tenors and basses. Now, we realize that Beethoven has given us three incomparable essays with one purpose: to support a gigantic vocal coda, operatic in dimension and so demanding as to test the limits of any choir.
“As a low bass, I’m challenged to hit an F sharp while trying to project over a large orchestra,’’ said Brian Hathaway, a singer with the Chorale. “If I were to characterize it, it would be exhausting but exhilarating.”
Tate Garrett, another singer with the group, said preparing for and performing this piece comes down to pacing.
“Singing Beethoven’s Ninth is all about controlled exuberance,’’ he said. “The music is uplifting and joyous, but it’s also high in the voice and often loud. You can’t let yourself get completely swept away or you’ll over sing and have no voice left by the final performance of the weekend.’’
The technical trials are part of what makes the piece so enjoyable to play, said Sarah Shellman, the orchestra’s principal second violin.
“I have to search for a lot more colors in my sound than would be required from other great pieces, and I relish the challenge,’’ she said. “It’s like I need to have access to the ultimate 152-pack of Crayola colors instead of the standard 64-color box.’’
Beethoven never heard a note of this music. By then stone deaf, he composed the Ninth over six years in silence, and at the end of its first performance in Vienna, he was oblivious to the thunderous applause. Only after the soprano soloist turned him around to face a cheering crowd did the composer realize what mattered most: He was never beyond the world that he so sublimely altered.
Since then, the symphony has meant something on a larger scale, one beyond the concert hall, a shared experience among all people who hear it and embrace its altruistic message.
“The Ode to Joy is about hope, overcoming adversity, and the universal brotherhood of mankind,’’ Garrett said. “Singing it makes me feel connected to all of the people in the world who have performed it so many times over the last 200 years … It’s so uplifting in live performance that audiences never get tired of it.’’
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
March 27-29
Straz Center and Mahaffey Theater
Tickets: FloridaOrchestra.org
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Kurt Loft is a journalist and music critic who has written for various newspapers, magazines and arts groups for more than 40 years. A member of the Music Critics Association of North America, he lives in St. Petersburg.
