When I contemplated the Evansville Philharmonic's performances of the cycle of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies, I decided to wipe the slate clean so to speak and attempt to examine these universally known masterpieces with fresh eyes and ears. Of course this is impossible to do in the purest sense because we already know the Beethoven Symphonies, sometimes quite intimately. I have conducted all the symphonies at least two or three times each, some of them many times, and most of them committed to memory. Many of the members of the Orchestra have also played all the symphonies -- some have played all of them multiple times. Even many in our audience know many, if not all of the symphonies quite well. But....what if we could try to look at them without relying on all the traditions that we know -- traditional tempos (often quite a bit slower than what Beethoven prescribes), accepted phrasing gestures, etc. Granted this is not easy to do with a body of orchestral repertoire that is the core of our literature.
I decided a starting point for this "fresh approach" would be for the Orchestra and me to use all new scores and parts. At the very beginning of this century, nearly 200 years after Beethoven composed these works, the German publisher, Baerenreiter, published a complete critical or "urtext" edition of all nine Beethoven symphonies. These editions went back to the original "autograph" scores and parts that Beethoven wrote and use those manuscripts as the prime source for the new edition. I purchased the complete set of scores for the nine symphonies and the Philharmonic is, as we play each symphony, purchasing a new set of parts from this definitive new edition. Having a new, unmarked set of scores and parts forces me as the conductor, essentially the person who lays out the performances parameters, to look at these symphonies with a fresh perspective -- admitedly impossible to eschew all the traditions and past performances and recordings, but hopefully enabling me to notice things I hadn't before.
So, armed with my new Baerenreiter score for the Beethoven 7th Symphony, I started studying, playing (on piano and in my head) through the score, and began re-marking the new score. I began doing this about four weeks ago in one of the most inspiring locations imaginable -- from my perch in a medieval "castello" high on a hill in the Tuscan countryside. Maybe it should have been the "Pastoral" symphony in that setting, but...anything looks, sounds, smells and tastes better in that pure, Tuscan country air. You see, my wife, Kitty, was taking a Violin Pedagogy course with Mimi Zweig, professor of Violin at Indiana University (and the first teacher of Joshua Bell) -- and I got to go along as her roomate (with an able assist from Continental Airlines -- we finally were able to use frequent flyer miles this time!). While Kitty was learning all kinds of new teaching techniques (her current studio of 25 private students + the kids at Carver Community Strings are the lucky recipients of her knowledge accumulated over the course of this intense workshop), I was soaking in not only the Tuscan sunshine -- but the glorious music of Beethoven's pulsating, exuberant 7th Symphony! As a conductor you learn to develop an inner musical ear and literally the notes on the page translate to sounds in your head. I can honestly say that I was hearing much of this wondrous symphony with truly fresh ears.
The photo is the view from our balcony in Castello di Cacciano.
Tomorrow I will take you through some of the "nitty-gritty" work involved in imparting much of what I gleaned from assimilating all these pages from the score of the Beethoven 7th (which has all the musicians' music, each on a separate line or staff) into the parts that the musicians play from.
I also want to direct all of you who want to learn more about the EPO's opening night concert, which will include the Beethoven 7th Symphony, as well as the rest of our 08-09 season, to our website, which is http://www.evansvillephilharmonic.org/.
