Beethoven Symphony No. 9, “Choral” @ Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Photo credit: Sylvia Elzafon
—Wayne Lee Gay
Any performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is a special event: the massive choral symphony ranks as one of the icons of world civilization. It features a flawless structure and musical vocabulary, a broad array of emotions ranging from humor to Olympian rage, and a text encapsulating humanity’s basic pleasures and highest hopes.
Even at that, the performances this weekend by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under music director Fabio Luisi provide a particularly spectacular rendition of this musical monument. Just as Shakespeare becomes even greater when spoken by great actors, and a great painting or sculpture becomes even greater when viewed in the right setting or context, this performance casts Beethoven’s genius in a particularly brilliant glow.
Conductor Luisi, whose first claim to fame is as a conductor of opera, plays up the dramatic aspects of the work. The first movement, titanic in scope, hits like a lightning bolt, but with every phrase measured against the sweeping architecture of the piece. The sudden whisper of the opening of the development section is as heart-stopping and breathtaking as the gigantic climax, gloriously delivered by the orchestra.
Likewise, the excited fugal counterpoint of the second movement leaps with electric excitement; Luisi finds the vocal qualities in the music (both here and in the lyrical third movement), and has a way of pushing phrases forward and then relaxing to build tempo, much in the fashion of a great operatic singer.
Then, of course, we come to the towering finale. Stationing the quartet of vocal soloists in the choral terrace just in front of the chorus is a superb acoustic and visual strategy. Bass-baritone Soloman Howard proclaimed the opening recitative with Jovian, earth-shattering power and artistic conviction, creating the greatest of many memorable moments in this performance. Tenor Issachah Savage responded likewise with his brief declamation, commandingly convincing as he urged us, “Run, brothers, your course gladly, like a hero to victory.”
Although the two female soloists don’t have the same opportunities for individual glory, soprano Angel Blue and mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven deliver their notoriously difficult roles with superb presence and vocal power. The Dallas Symphony Chorus, back in full strength (and maskless) once again proves itself one of the finest large choral ensembles in the world, from moments of soft intensity to the oceanic roar of a great symphonic choir. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the Meyerson is the finest room in America for large-scale choral-orchestral works.
As for the great problem Beethoven bequeathed to generations of presenters and conductors: What may be put on a program in front of this overwhelming masterpiece? However grand it is, the Ninth is not quite long enough to fill an entire concert, and too long to be joined by another major work. I’ve personally witnessed solutions ranging from Vaughan Williams’ sweetly melodic “Serenade to Music” to Brahms’ “Academic Festival” Overture. I’ve read of (but never personally witnessed) an intriguing and radically thought-provoking pairing of the Ninth with Schoenberg’s Holocaust-inspired A Survivor from Warsaw. Luisi and the Dallas Symphony present a new solution to the dilemma with “Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!” (“A Kiss for the Entire World”), a ten-minute purely instrumental work by American composer Bruce Adolphe, designed specifically as a preface to Beethoven’s Ninth and premiered by the orchestra and Luisi at the Vail festival in Colorado last July.
Adolphe takes the title from the text of the Ninth Symphony, and there are several tiny, almost imperceptible quotes from the larger work. A gorgeous yearning theme in the violins opens the Adolphe piece, answered by occasional comments and reactions—sometimes passionate—from the other sections. The overall mood, resonant and soaring, recalls mid-twentieth-century American symphonists such as Copland, Barber, and Hanson, and the result is a serious, thoughtful, but easily appreciated work. Adolphe has succeeded in what must have been a daunting musical challenge—providing a moving twenty-first-century American response to Beethoven’s Ninth.
In these performances, conductor Luisi leads without break from Adolphe’s “Kuss” into the thunder of the first movement of the Beethoven; the effect is appropriately convincing and profound. And the composer was on hand at Thursday night’s concert, joining the performers in receiving the thunderously enthusiastic audience ovation at the end of the concert.
WHEN: Through May 15 (Friday/Saturday @ 7:30; Sunday at 3:00)
WHERE: Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center
WEB: dallassymphony.org
