Orchestra of Southern Utah: Celebrating the Living Gift of Beethoven

By Bryce Christensen

Because the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig von Beethoven has coincided with a global pandemic, many concerts slated to celebrate his musical achievement have been cancelled. But as a few brave directors and orchestras have found ways this fall to again perform the great composer’s work for live audiences, listeners have responded with warm appreciation. In Bonn, Germany, Mayor Ashok Sridharan recently acknowledged, “We have had no concerts since March and the demand for them has become greater than any of us would have dreamed of. If there is one good thing that has come out of this pandemic, it is that people are desperately longing to hear Beethoven performed live again. It is as though many only now fully appreciate just how much of a gift his music is.”

Though a long way from Bonn, Cedar City has also experienced a famine of live symphony concerts during the Sesquicentennial of Beethoven’s birth, so generating a desperate yearning here--just as in Bonn--for live performances of his work. Over one hundred very happy music lovers-- all appropriately masked and socially distanced-- gathered at the Cedar City’s Heritage Center on November 12th to share in the sheer joy of a live Beethoven concert. Though no doubt somewhat diminished, the joy of hundreds of others who later experienced that concert as a cyber recording was heartfelt. Cedar City’s music-lovers together rejoiced in the gift given them by the Orchestra of Southern Utah (OSU) as it found a way to surmount the difficulties imposed by COVID-19 to again play the incomparable music of the German genius born 250 years ago--for both a live audience and a cyber one.

With the concert’s very first number, listeners recognized the reason that OSU labeled its celebration of Beethoven’s art as a “Masterful Romance,” so extending its season-long theme of “Romanza.” For with marvelous creative mastery, Beethoven conjures a romance of heart-breaking defeat and unassailable hope in his Egmont Overture. With his signature fervor, OSU director Xun Sun drew from the orchestra a regal stateliness in the opening measures, segued into dark and tense transitional passages, and finally reached a piercing and dramatic finale. Inspired by Goethe, the playwright who wrote the tragedy for which his work was a musical complement, Beethoven truly plumbs the spiritual depths of the political martyr at center-stage in this play, but also soars to the heroic ideals for which he gives his life. Director and orchestra seamlessly glide through the dark and tense passages in this dramatic number to climb to the empyreal heights of its majestic conclusion.

The spritelier second Beethoven number in the concert--the Scherzando movement of Quartet No. 7: in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1-- stirred audiences with its puckish energy. This effervescent piece radiated a boundless zest and hope, impervious to melancholy and despair. Sun and the talented musicians under his baton poured forth an enchanting river of musical radiance. As a complement to the opening number, this Quartet compellingly reminded listeners of the breadth and diversity of Beethoven’s musical palette.

As they turned their attention to the final Beethoven work of the concert, listeners thrilled to Triple Concerto in C Major for Violin, Cello, and Piano--identified by Beethoven’s first biographer as a work written for the composer’s royal pupil, the Archduke Rudolf of Austria. Certainly, in its serene opening passages, it delivered something of the gracious and dignified leisure of a regal sphere. But by the end of its first movement this concerto had risen into a powerful crescendo, only to subside in its later movements-- and then crested again. While the orchestra as a whole adeptly shaped the broad contours of this composition, the inner details emerged in the interplay of the three guest musicians: violinist Paul Abegg (faculty at Dixie State University), cellist Ka-Wai Yu (faculty at Dixie State University), and pianist Christian Bohnenstengel (faculty at Southern Utah University). Listeners could only relish the exquisite musical colloquy between Abegg’s soaring violin flights, Yu’s plangent cello interludes, and Bohnenstengel’s pellucid piano cascades--melded in perfect synchrony with the larger harmonic pattern developed by the orchestra. Somewhere, the shade of Beethoven (his hearing surely restored) smiled with pleasure. Director Sun deserves high praise not only for having the orchestra so well prepared for this culminating number but also for having secured the services of such extraordinary soloists.

As the spell-binding final notes of the Triple Concerto died out, listeners in the Heritage Center applauded their thanks for the opportunity to once again hear such sublime music in live performance--while those who later joined via cyber recording savored a gift still very much worth having. While no one knows just how long COVID-19 will continue to challenge symphony orchestras, listeners in Cedar City have reason to join listeners in Bonn in expressing deep appreciation for musicians willing to meet that challenge by venturing onto the concert stage for live performances again.

Photos thanks to Christian Bohnenstengel