Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

Music by Ludwig van Beethoven

Conductor Joe Miller Soprano Lauren Michelle Mezzo-soprano Catherine Ann Daniel Tenor Eric Ferring Baritone Troy Cook Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus Director Robert Taylor

Spoleto Festival USA Chorus Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra

Program

Symphony No. 9

in D minor, op. 125 “Choral” Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso II. Scherzo. Molto vivace – Presto III. Adagio molto e cantabile IV. Presto

CHARLESTON GAILLARD CENTER Martha and John M. Rivers Performance Hall

June 9, 8:00pm

1 hour, 15 minutes Performed without an intermission

Please find song text on page 115.

This performance is made possible in part through funds from the Spoleto Festival USA Endowment, generously supported by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.

Spoleto Festival USA is proud to present this performance with the support of the Charleston Gaillard Center.

Consider that in 1831, when Omar Ibn Said wrote his remarkable autobiography—the inspiration for the new opera Omar by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels—it was only seven years since the Ninth Symphony had been heard for the very first time (on a Friday night in Vienna, May 7, 1824).

The aspirations that Friedrich Schiller articulated in his 1785 poem Ode an die Freude (“Ode to Joy”), on the eve of the French Revolution, had sparked Ludwig van Beethoven’s enthusiasm from his early years. Yet they would remain utopian, almost otherworldly, abstractions for the countless enslaved people like Ibn Said (who is believed to have shared the composer’s year of birth, 1770). Although the Ninth received its first American performance in 1846, in New York City, Ibn Said continued to be enslaved until his death in 1864. (He outlived Beethoven by some 37 years.)

Already in the 1790s, the young Beethoven had determined to set the entire poem to music, and Schiller’s utopian vision of the triumph of a just, egalitarian society restored to full humanity remained his lodestar until the composer’s final decade, when he composed the Ninth.

Rooted in Enlightenment philosophy but also linked to Romantic principles, this vision animates Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio (where the hero’s climactic liberation is accompanied by an “ode to joy” of its own), and it directs the metaphorical journey from oppressive doom to redeeming light that is the “subtext” of so many of his instrumental compositions—most famously, the Fifth Symphony, the only other Beethoven symphony besides the Ninth set in a minor key; both works, crucially, trace a path to the major for their respective final movements.

In 1817, the recently established Philharmonic Society of London commissioned two new symphonies from Beethoven. He had not taken up the genre since 1812, when he completed Symphonies Seven and Eight, after which the composer entered into a particularly turbulent period of his life. Only one of these was completed, and Beethoven took years to wrestle it into existence. The creative flow began in earnest in 1822, when he hit on the idea of incorporating an abridged version of his beloved Schiller poem into the new symphony (along with some of his own rewrites); it took until early 1824 for Beethoven to complete the orchestration.

In the context of post-Napoleonic Vienna, where a conservative political order had been stage-managed for Europe not long before, Beethoven confronted his audience with liberal ideals. He also confronted this public, then overtaken by the craze for all things Rossini, with music that exploded pre-existing expectations of what a symphony could let alone should be.

“The Ninth is one of the works choral conductors dread the most,” says Maestro Joe Miller, “because Beethoven pushes us to the limits of what the human voice will do.” The mammoth score that the composer presented to his colleagues in Vienna for the special concert premiere posed challenges that could not possibly be met under the circumstances, which had allowed for just two rehearsals of this brand-new music. The Ninth has thus always represented something aspirational more than something achieved —not only in its idealism but from the point of view of musical performance as well. After all, the music Beethoven composed insists on extremes of experience—and not only the experience of joy. The Ninth compels us to undergo an epic journey before we arrive there. “It’s not just about joy,” as Miller points out. The first movement, in fact, traces a powerfully tragic narrative. Emerging out of an ambiguous void— the musical equivalent of the Chaos preceding Creation—thematic shards begin to coalesce until, with a mighty increase in volume and power, Beethoven hammers them together into his titanic main theme. Its return at the climactic reprise is nothing short of apocalyptic, reinforced by brutally pounding timpani (a key instrumental “protagonist” in the Ninth).

The densely concentrated, primal, even violent energy of the Scherzo—more Beethovenian hammering—anticipates something of the Minimalist aesthetic. It counters the first movement’s epic sprawl with an eternally circling, primal dance. But both movements give an impression of cosmic forces at play. The Adagio introduces an entirely new realm of contemplation into the world of the Ninth. Structurally, it unfolds as alternating variations on two very distinctive themes.

Beethoven plunges us right back into chaos at the outset of the enormous final movement—an explosion all the more shocking in that it interrupts the unearthly spirit of beauty sustained throughout the Adagio. Even without words, Beethoven manages to stage the drama that leads from that dissonant chaos to the seemingly inevitable evolution of the human voice in song. A solo baritone emerges with a cry to try something different, and the instruments then show the way to the Promised Land, developing the “joy theme” in a process of successive layering.

In terms of its form, this last movement unfolds more or less as a set of extreme variations on the new theme. These can become quite eccentric, as when the solo tenor (forced to strain very high in his range) is accompanied by clanging cymbals and other gestures that, to European ears of the time, evoked stereotypes of a Turkish military band—only to have the voices go silent for a spell while the orchestra embarks on a fiercely charged episode. Later, he introduces lofty, radiant music associated with a transcendent Being “beyond the starry firmament,” engaging with feelings of sacred awe. Here, Beethoven affirms still another way of connecting beyond our individual selves.

“It’s easy to get lost in our individuality and forget that we’re in this world with other people,” says Joe Miller. As we honor the re-telling of Ibn Said’s story in Omar, Beethoven’s Ninth offers a counterpart of joyousness that is about “bringing people together, re-examining customs, and celebrating brotherhood”—a message that, in our increasingly turbulent world, has lost none of its urgency.

— Thomas May

JOE MILLER (conductor) has served as Spoleto Festival USA’s Director of Choral Activities since 2007. Miller is also the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Symphonic Choir as well as the Professor of Conducting/Chair of Choral Studies at the College-Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati, where he has served since 2020. Miller has collaborated with some of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. Recent seasons have included performances with the Philharmoniker Berliner and Sir Simon Rattle; The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick NézetSéguin; and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Gustavo Dudamel. From 2006 to 2020, he served as the Director of Choral Activities at Westminster Choir College.

TROY COOK (baritone) has been praised for his “technically flawless performance” by Opera News and heralded throughout his career for his vocal suaveness and vibrant stage presence. His many and varied performances include appearances with the Metropolitan Opera; Washington National Opera; Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Teatro San Carlo, Napoli; The Dallas Opera; and Opera Pacific, among others. An acclaimed interpreter of new works, he created the role of John Cree in Elizabeth Cree, as well as Father Palmer in Silent Night.

CATHERINE ANN DANIEL (mezzo-soprano) made her Opera Tampa debut in Carmen singing the title role in 2020. Daniel studied voice with Coloratura soprano Tracy Dahl at the University of Manitoba. She was a member of the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, and later became a member of the Opera Studio Nederlands in Amsterdam. Her career highlights include singing Emelda Griffiths in Grammy Award-winner Terence Blanchard’s opera Champion with l’Opéra de Montréal, debuting Klytemnestra in Edmonton Opera’s production of Elektra, singing Elisabetta in Knoxville Opera’s production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, and debuting at Carnegie Hall as a soloist in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War.

ERIC FERRING (tenor) is an alumnus of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center and the Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist Program. Highlights of his 2021 – 2022 season include singing Beppe in a filmed production of Pagliacci with Lyric Opera of Chicago, and his Metropolitan Opera debut as Pong in Turandot, along with performances of Tamino in The Magic Flute, Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and a Royal Herald in Don Carlos. He will make his debut with Santa Fe Opera as Fenton in Falstaff. He is also a winner of the 2022 George London Foundation Competition. LAUREN MICHELLE (soprano) is a native of Los Angeles. She is a graduate of UCLA and The Juilliard School. She was a prize winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and is an internationally recognized opera star. Some of her notable international roles include Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Musetta in La bohème, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. She has performed at Covent Garden as Jessica in The Merchant of Venice and completed a season as a house soprano with Vienna State Opera. She sang in concert under the baton of Plácido Domingo at LA Opera and made her debut with Washington National Opera to critical acclaim alongside Eric Owens. She was awarded first place in both the Lotte Lenya Competition and the Marcello Giordani International Vocal Competition.

ROBERT TAYLOR (director, Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus) is the director of choral activities at the College of Charleston, the founding artistic director and president of the Taylor Festival Choir and Taylor Music Group, and the director of the Charleston Symphony Chorus and Chamber Singers. Called a “rising star in the international choral scene” and a “true master of his craft” (Charleston City Paper), Taylor has also earned accolades for his ensembles, which have been described as sounding “more musical than would seem possible” (The Post and Courier) and have received numerous plaudits from critics for their technical proficiency, musicality, and beautiful sound production.

THE CHARLESTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CHORUS is composed of auditioned, volunteer singers from the Charleston, South Carolina, area. Founded in 1978 by Miss Emily Remington as the Charleston Singers Guild, and now directed by Robert Taylor, the full Chorus performs a diverse choral repertoire to nurture and educate audiences and future singers.

THE SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA CHORUS is a new professional choir, led by Festival Director of Choral Activities Joe Miller, that builds upon the Festival’s longstanding tradition of exceptional choral music. The Festival Chorus consists of more than 50 vocal fellows with broad and versatile skillsets. Each season, vocal fellows perform major choral works; serve as the choir for Spoleto’s mainstage operas, with select singers covering both large and small roles; and take part in special projects or smaller ensemble works.

THE SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA ORCHESTRA serves as a backbone to the Festival's programming, appearing in many different configurations as part of opera, symphonic, choral, chamber, and contemporary performances. Comprised of early career musicians, the Orchestra is formed anew each year through nationwide auditions. Alumni of the Orchestra can be found in orchestras throughout the world, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, and many others.