The responsibility for keeping genuinely great forms of art alive falls to every generation. Each son and daughter of future musical revolution is expected to serve as anthropologist for their forerunners at times, providing new ways to look at pieces studied with exhaustive thoroughness.
From Thursday until today, the All-Beethoven celebration, sponsored by the Department of Performing Arts and College of Arts of Sciences, provided such introspection. Over the course of a short weekend, the spirit of innovation that swept Beethoven's time enveloped our own with new generations embracing the composer's genius.
The festivities began in the Greenberg Theatre Thursday when the Sunrise Quartet provided a performance of several of Beethoven's later works, along with a brief dissection of each piece beforehand. The quartet consisted of Teri Lazar and Claudia Chudoff on violin, Osman Kivrak on viola and Diana Fish on cello. Chudoff served as master of ceremonies, and explained the origins and motivating factors behind both of the pieces performed that night.
The first piece played, "Quartet in B Major, op. 130," was written toward the twilight of his career, off the heels of Beethoven's famed "Symphony No. 9." Chudoff's virtuoso violin work was complimented by Kivrak's handling of the main rhythmic progression, proving to be a highlight of the intricate piece.
After a short intermission, the Quartet launched into "Grosse Fugue op. 133," a piece containing the last movement ever written by Beethoven. Before starting the piece, Chudoff provided an index of the four movements by playing samples of the main themes present in each of four movements. The quartet's presentation of the piece outshined the first, no easy task given the predominantly fast pace of the first. However, Fish's cello work provided a steady anchor to the more somber movements; combined with Lazar's accompaniment, gave the piece additional strength.
Two nights later, the AU Symphony Orchestra played the same venue with numbers far outweighing those of the quartet. The focus had shifted from the latter, and slightly more obscure, works of Beethoven played in small ensembles to more traditional pieces that have sustained the composer's following over many years.
The orchestra started off the evening with the "Leonore Overture No. 3" from op. 72, an excerpt from Beethoven's multi-part opera "Fidelio." The symphony's highest points in this piece were found in the quick crescendos that rocked the piece and glossed over any potential weaknesses. The same saving graces were found in the second piece "Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello, Piano, and Orchestra."
Violinist Lynn Yoo, violoncello player Erin Stillman and pianist Ryan Morin provided a competent quartet accompaniment to the orchestra, utilizing a good amount of interplay to add some measure of depth to the performance.
The highest point in the evening was the orchestra's performance of "Symphony No. 3" in E flat major, commonly known as "Eroica." While the two previous pieces of the evening were certainly well played, "Symphony No. 3" encompassed the entire length of the second half of the concert and actually had a greater sense of personality to its execution. It felt as if conductor Jesus Manuel Barard was willing the music to come to life with his semi-epileptic fits of composing. What resulted was a lyrical exorcism with the symphony stirring the audience thoroughly.
It's been said that "Past is Prologue" in the realm of human events. By reaching into the roots of lyrical expressionism that Beethoven embodied, the artistic community of AU provided a prelude to treat original works they encourage their students to foster in the future. The music of the past can never die and will only become perpetual, constantly rejuvenating itself for years to come.
