The volunteer Civic Orchestra of Tucson is the latest Tucson ensemble to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday in a concert that also nods to two other composing giants whose names begin with a “B”: Brahms and Bartók.
In two performances of “A Few of Our Favorite Bs” this weekend, the orchestra, under the baton of Music Director Charles Bontrager will tackle Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, a five-movement work that opens with that iconic dadadadum! and closes with the crashing fever pitch.
Tucson Symphony Orchestra, which devoted its season to celebrating Beethoven, performed the Fifth in December.
The Fifth is on a program that also includes Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” and Bartók’s “Viola Concerto” featuring University of Arizona doctoral student and standout violist Tiezheng Shen.
Shen, who has made his presence known in Tucson’s classical music scene since coming to the UA four years ago, has already made his debut at Carnegie Hall and Wiener Saal Mozarteum in Salzburg after notching wins in international competitions. He also is the founding director of the Viola Voice International Viola Festival in Mexico City and violist of the award-winning string quartet Quartet Lyrique.
His experience will serve him well with the Bartók, the last work the Hungarian composer wrote before dying of leukemia in 1945. At the time, only the viola part was sketched out.
The concerto was completed by a former student of his and later revised by his son Peter in 1990.
