How to go
What: “Beethoven’s Great Ninth”
Where: Schuster Center, Second and Main streets, Dayton
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A pre-concert talk will be held at 7 p.m. before each performance with Neal Gittleman and Michael Schelle.
Cost: $9-$59
Tickets/more info: Call Ticket Center Stage (937) 228-3630 or go online to www.daytonperformingarts.org.
The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra salutes Ludwig van Beethoven’s iconic 1824 masterpiece “Symphony No. 9” on Friday and Saturday at the Schuster Center as the season finale of its Classical Series.
“Symphony No. 9,” Beethoven’s final opus, is a majestic marvel created when the composer was nearly completely deaf. Performed in four movements, the composition was the first symphonic work to incorporate voices, ultimately deeming it a choral symphony. The final movement features the timeless “Ode To Joy,” inspired by Freidrich Schiller’s 1785 poem of the same name.
“Greatness (is) inherent in the piece,” said DPO music director Neal Gittleman. “The bold conception, the revealing of the struggle-to-triumph theme of the ‘Fifth Symphony’ now recast as struggle-to-joy, the incredible, solemn, frightening power of the first movement, the turn-it-up-to-11 energy of the second movement, the sublime beauty of the third movement, and the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to the finale. The ‘Ninth’ is what you make of it. Fundamentally, it is what it is, which is what Beethoven wrote on the page. And that is amazing enough just by itself without anybody adding anything to it. On one level, it is simply a composer’s solution to the age-old problem, ‘How do I write a symphony in the key of D minor?’ And it’s an incredibly brilliant solution to the problem. But on another level, it is something else entirely, something that transcends the notes on the page and energizes just about everyone who’s lucky enough to hear it.”
“Symphony No. 9” features soprano Andrea Chenoweth, mezzo-soprano Brandi Samuel, tenor Jason Slayden and bass Nathan Stark. Also, joining the DPO orchestra chorus, under the direction of Hank Dahlman, will be Gary Grossman, an amateur singer and retired New York City accountant who has performed in over 60 presentations of the work from Iowa to Florida. Grossman became particularly passionate about the piece while a student at Brandeis University in the 1960s. He typically performs the work two or three times a year, providing a financial donation to the choruses he joins, including the DPO.
“Performing the ‘Ninth’ is basically my hobby,” said Grossman, whose first singing appearance was at Carnegie Hall in 1995. “I just love all four movements. I know the piece intimately. I get a real thrill out of singing it. The venue may change but the music never changes. The music gets me every time.”
In addition to Puerto Rican composer and Cornell University professor Roberto Sierra’s “A Joyous Overture,” the concert incorporates contemporary composer Michael Schelle’s action-fused “Swashbuckler!,” which reveals his fondness for Igor Stravinksy, Béla Bartók and Frank Zappa. After intermission the audience will be treated to ‘Symphony No. 9,” which marks the first time the DPO has performed the piece since 2009.
“This time around, especially, I’m continually reminding myself, ‘What is the symphony about?,’” said Gittleman. “It’s about joy. And how you find your way from wherever you are to joy.”
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