Going out in Rare Style: A CRUSHING TRAGEDY and THE ULTIMATE TRIUMPH OF THE SPIRIT

"Modern people have learned all too well how to keep our emotions in check, and to mask them with humor or irony. Music has a singular capacity to unlock those controls and bring us face to face with our raw, uncensored and unattenuated feelings." ~ John Adams

"If death comes before I can develop all my artistic faculties, I should probably wish it came later - yet even then I shall be happy. For will it not deliver me from a state of endless suffering?" "Music is the mediator between the spirit and the senses." ~ Ludwig van Beethoven

CONCERT PREVIEW for March 6th & 8th, 2018
The TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA is going to end the season on a very high note, indeed. "Ü-ber Ster-nen muß er woh-nen" (He must dwell beyond the stars!): the 'ODE TO JOY', Beethoven's 9th Symphony. The opening number, on the other hand, 'ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS', by John Adams, is a powerful, early attempt to help us heal, in the stark numbing aftermath of the most gruesome modern urban catastrophe in U.S. history: the collapse of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, in New York City, on September 11, 2001. This eye-popping Finale to the ear-opening Inaugural Season of Music Director, Jose Luis Gomez, mirrors the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's program from September 19, 2002, when Stravinsky's 'Symphony of Psalms', billed to preface Beethoven's 9^th Symphony, was replaced with the world premier of John Adams' post-9/11 work, 'On The Transmigration Of Souls'.

This powerful, originally "accidental" one-two punch, comprises a bold and daring juxtaposition of disparate emotional journeys, carved from intense mourning, through to a hard-fought, all-embracing triumph. Why reassemble this seemingly unbalanced load of artistic heavyweights? "There is a connection between Beethoven's 9^th Symphony and Adams' 'Transmigration', says Maestro Gomez. "The 'Ode to Joy' is a personal spiritual answer to God, for Beethoven's fate of a life of extreme pain. The space provided by John Adams, was created for the extreme grief of the survivors of 9/11, even if their grieving takes many decades, or is never truly complete. The music connects us. Our conversations with each other, and even the sounds of everyday life, are music. The connections are everywhere." From this perspective, if life is music, and music is life, then the river of tears from traumatized survivors can entwine with the open, optimistic embrace of He who dwells beyond the canopy of stars. The insight is stunning and the challenge, daunting. Can we be free enough to truly embrace the universe, by fully loving life, in the face of our own, this nation's, and the world's suffering?

Regarding Adams' ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS

Having previously conducted several of his works, Maestro Gomez expresses deep admiration, "for what Adams does with the orchestra; both the orchestration and his mastery of diverse composing styles." Describing the combination of forces here – large orchestra, pre-recorded audio trac, symphonic chorus, and boys choir – also puts a gleam in the conductor's eye. Much of the score is comprised of various levels of stasis, with dramatic movement consisting of the transitions between successive static phases. The specific qualities and sonic characteristics of the atmospheres here created, are the keys to the interpretation and performance of 'Souls'. Based on Adams intent to create a memory space not strictly tied to 9/11, this is a time to simply be open and present, come what may from inside. What memories from the core of your being will arise from the gravitas and the serenity vibrating though the TCC Music Hall Friday evening?

Regarding the NINTH SYMPHONY of Beethoven

So much has been written and pontificated about Beethoven's symphonic magnus opus, the 9^th Symphony, let us consider only a few salient points. One, compositionally, the first movement is the prize masterpiece. It is an intense, fully worked out, uncompromising confrontation with life's struggles. In Beethoven's oeuvre, the breadth, depth, and intensity of its drama is unmatched. Maestro Gomez points to the open fifths and octave jumps which are the first sounds. Is it in a major or minor key? And of what character? A mystery has begun with no indication of where it may lead. And as it unfolds, a spiritual battle royale is on, whose pressure is unrelenting. The famously dramatic violins-and-timpani opening statement of the Scherzo? It is also laid out in open fifths, and uncovers another angle in the fight, yet with no real drop in spiritual intensity or the profundity of its message. And while the Adagio certainly finds some sonorous serenity, both its longing and lyricism remain well contained in a mostly contemplative, if not brooding, mode of expression.

The Finale, which truly is a choral symphony in itself, and despite the splendor and grandeur of its message, is often viewed, somewhat like Tolstoy's 'War and Peace', as a loose baggy monster – its form seemingly incomprehensible to even its most ardent and brilliant admirers. To view and judge its form, based on the terms of its narrative, however, reveals Beethoven's true genius. Its furious opening unleashes a directness and level of frustration and rage beyond anything in the preceding movements. As the low strings then cast about for an answer, the quest appears to be in vain, as the rifling through of previous responses quickly yields no answer to this grief. The solution then arrives in the form of a complete reversal of perspective; one of surrender and joyous affirmation. As Nietzsche tells it, in 'Zarathustra's Midnite Song': "Joy is deeper than sorrow. For all joy seeks eternity." What follows from Beethoven is an organic vision of that path to eternity. Along the way, he exploits every conceivable musical device, all of which he had forged himself into an expressive master. Recitative, march, fugato, dirge, double fugue, giant coda, and cadenza, written for orchestra, chorus, and vocal soloists, all become variations on one of two themes, and saturated with musical building block motives from each. Plugged in between his last five piano sonatas and his final six string quartets – Beethoven's explorations of the far reaches of the human mind – the Ninth Symphony is the spiritual affirmation which gave him the strength to hold himself together through it all. If knowledge is suffering, then a spirituality that embraces full awareness is essential for individual sanity and civil societal progress. Thus does Beethoven's overpowering triumph in the Ninth Symphony never fail to hearten and enlighten us.

The amazing scope and depth of this final concert program of our Music Director's first full season is most telling. Every expressionistic, musical, and logistical challenge for the orchestra, its choruses, and guest artists will not only be accepted, but will be relished as opportunities for each of us, and the community at large, to move to a musically and artistically higher plane. A place where we all become better human beings. In sum, "I don't care if you think they're hatching. Count your blessings, not your chickens!"

~ Steven Gendel

http://www.tucsonsymphony.org/event/season-finale-beethovens-ninth/2018-04-06/

PROGRAM:
Adams: On the Transmigration of Souls
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, “Choral”

José Luis Gomez, conductor

Ellie Dehn, soprano
Sara Couden, contralto
Sean Panikkar, tenor
Davóne Tines, bass-baritone
Tucson Symphony Chorus
Bruce Chamberlain, director
and Children’s Chorus