Symphony News

Personal Reflections from the Music Director

Dear Friends:

         I have said it before:  a concert of one composer's music can be risky.  I mean, can you imagine going to an all-Liszt concert?  It would be interesting to see who went out of their minds first:  audience or musicians!  Beethoven, however, is one of a small handful of composers (including Mozart and Tchaikovsky) whose works do lend themselves to an evening dedicated solely to one composer. The man simply wrote so much great music that it is an easy task to present an evening of variety and interest.  I cannot think of three works which could make for a more splendid evening than Beethoven's Second Symphony, Third Symphony, and Egmont Overture.  Although a mere two years separates the creation of these two symphonies, these two works are worlds apart in their rhetoric and affect.  Such variety!  In fact, these two years were the very years of utmost crisis in Beethoven's adult life as he was coming to terms with his famed deafness and the dramatic impact it would have on his personal and public life. These are the very years of the so-called Heiligenstadt Letter, a letter intended for his brothers but never mailed and discovered only after his death.  To quote one historian, "It marks a watershed in the creative life of Beethoven which is hard to parallel in the life of any other composer."  In it, he declares, that despite his now permanent disability, "Oh, it seemed to me impossible to leave the world until I had forth all that I felt was within me."  It is a renewed commitment to life despite its adversities.  It was life's struggles which lead to new modes of thought and expression.  And for Beethoven, this creative force was inseparable   from his lifelong "love for humanity and a desire to do good."  I look forward to you joining us as we celebrate "Beethoven, the Hero" at our next Bravo performance!

Crafton Beck

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