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SYMPHONY REVIEW
Beethoven Drama and The San Jose Symphony
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By James Harold Carr
Beethoven's fascination with the tragic hero figure, as he himself has come to be seen, was the subject of the San Jose Symphony's season-opening concert on Friday, September 11 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Maestro Leonid Grin's program posed Beethoven's Op. 84, the Incidental music to "Egmont" a tragedy by Goethe, against the Third Symphony, composed six years earlier, in 1803, and also concerned with heroic revolutionary struggle against tyrants. In fact, the "Eroica," was itself revolutionary. It was the longest and most formally complex symphonic work yet composed.
This formal expansion was not achieved by merely stretching
familiar shapes. For example, Beethoven added extensively elaborated
development sections, often where his listeners expected a brief Coda or
the literal reprise of an opening theme.
While the four movements of the "Eroica" might suggest a hero's struggle, death, rebirth, and exaltation, its unprecedented formal complexity bewildered Viennese listeners at first public performance of the "Eroica" in
1805. A correspondent to a German Literary Journal of the day claimed
Beethoven's revolutionary artistic path would cause both the composer and
his public to suffer, and warned the composer that it would take humanity
"a few thousand years" to grasp this work. The San Jose Symphony's
performance of "Eroica" reminded us of how completely wrong Beethoven's
critics were.
Maestro Grin's vigorous Allegro con Brio tempo in the
first movement was supported by the orchestra's clean responsive
articulation and sure intonation. The grand drama of the music never
waned. The second movement's tragic C minor Marcia funebre (funeral march)
is epic in scope, certainly one of Beethoven's great slow
movements. Here, the orchestra's principal oboist Pamela Hakl, stood out,
as did the cello and double bass sections. In the exuberant third movement
Scherzo, metric ambiguity was played to good effect, while the San Jose
horns were solid and nimble. Maestro Grin's fourth movement ebbed
and flowed gracefully into the indicated fermati (withholding of pulse). Fine ensemble work was heard from both winds and strings in the variations, march, and andante of this formally unique
Finale.
The Incidental Music to "Egmont," the program's first half, was
composed by Beethoven in 1809-10 on a commission to provide the music for
a theatrical production of Goethe's play. In addition to the Overture, the
San Jose Symphony presented nine pieces of incidental music with narration
between each. What resulted was an accessible and affecting portrayal of
Count Egmont's inner turmoil and eventual self-sacrifice in his struggle
against Philip II's tyranny.
The Flemish Count Egmont was an historical figure, who lived in
the Spanish-governed 16th century Netherlands. Clara, Count Egmont's
(fictitious) beloved, was a commoner. Both the role of Egmont and and the narration of the scenario of Goethe's play were delivered by David Ogden Stiers, familiar from his role as "Winchester" in the TV series M*A*S*H*. He and the young American soprano, Sari Gruber, as Clara, conveyed the characters strongly. Stiers' spoken narration of the scenario was in English while Gruber's two pieces were sung in the original German. The program provided the text of these in English but unfortunately omitted the German that was actually sung.
For the Incidental Music, Maestro Grin's tempi and dynamic
contrasts were focused and expressive. This orchestra's string section
holds a large reserve of power, which he used with subtlety. San Jose's
principle oboist, Pamela Hakl, again provided superbly played solo lines.
Clara's patriotic song, "Die Trommel geruehret" (The Drum-Roll Sounds),
and her touching love song, "Freudvoll und Leidvoll" (Joyful and
Sorrowful), revealed Gruber's fresh expressive vocal color, her clear
diction, and good intonation. Stiers' delivery was refined and skillfully
shaped. Unfortunately, during his closing monologue, the sound system in
the Center for the Performing Arts distorted briefly.
A small, but interesting display in the Center for the Performing Arts lobby, mounted by The American Beethoven Society of San Jose State University supplemented the performance. It included several first editions of Beethoven's works, and two good reproductions of
"Eroica" manuscripts.
(Dr. James Harold Carr is a composer who teaches at Stanford University.)
©1998 James H. Carr, all rights reserved
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