Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 opens with a crush of percussion and brass. It’s beautiful and shocking and brilliant and dramatic, and everything that you would expect from Beethoven.
When the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, joined by the TSO Chorus and a trio of soloists, performs Beethoven’s choral symphony this weekend, you will experience all of that bold, brash, quivering-in-your-seat music.
But it won’t sound bombastic — a word often associated with Beethoven, probably because the composer was pretty angry with life when he wrote the Ninth, his final symphony and one he composed when he was completely deaf.
“I think the greatest of Beethoven Nine is the simplicity of its complexity,” TSO music director Jose Luis Gomez said. “For as strange as it sounds, it’s a very simple, straight-forward song that has a very powerful message.”
While some see the Ninth as this great monumental and sophisticated work deserving of grand gestures, Gomez sees it for its true simplicity and approaches it with a chamber-music mentality.
His goal is to “make it as raw and straightforward as Beethoven is.”
“He was very direct with his illness, not being able to listen because he was deaf,” the TSO conductor said. “You see a very raw and straightforward approach to music.”
The Ninth is largely regarded as one of the greatest compositions in Western classical music.
In the past decade, it has been one of the most-performed symphonies worldwide. It hasn’t been performed in Tucson in eight years.
“It creates a little bit of expectation because this work embodies many messages at the same time: It embodies joy and uplifting feelings, but also you can feel the struggles of his life,” Gomez said.
Gomez said his approach to the Ninth envisions Beethoven sitting at the piano improvising with friends.
“I see more chamber music in this work,” he said. “When you look at that certain moment that is so lyrically simple; it’s the details that I like about this piece.”
Even with trombones blaring and the full force of the orchestra and voices — 150 all told — Gomez sees more beauty and character in the music that goes beyond the volume.
“With Beethoven … it’s all about the characters, a good accent, substance. Something meaningful. It can’t be just loud,” he said. “Even the loudest parts you have to make meaningful.”
Gomez has paired the Beethoven with John Adams post-9/11 choral work “On the Transmigration of Souls,” a piece that will include voices from the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus.
The pairing works, Gomez said. Beethoven was envisioning his end game and mourning the loss of his hearing in the Ninth; Adams was examining our shared pain and loss after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
