Beethoven 250th
Soloist
Conductor
A Beethoven Indulgence
Artistic Director Burhan Güner’s pre-concert Email :
“
Dear Friends
It’s with great delight that I write to you ahead of our upcoming concert on Sunday 6th September at 3pm at Hale School Auditorium.
After months of living in this pandemic world I hope you’ll join with me in celebrating the return of the orchestra and sharing the live classical music experience.
We restart our year with the concert we were to have presented back in April – an all-Beethoven programme to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth (now a little closer to the actual date of December 17th!). Joining us to commemorate this special occasion are two of MetSO’s favourite guest artists, conductor Bruce Herriman and pianist Raymond Yong.
All the works in this concert are revolutionary in one way or another and form the backbone of what is known as Beethoven’s Heroic Period (1803—1812). Written during the time of the Napoleonic Wars these masterpieces resonate strongly with our current turbulent times.
Beethoven’s overture to the incidental music for Goethe’s political liberation drama Egmont remains stirring and powerful to this day. The play itself was a popular classic during Beethoven’s lifetime, its central themes of political resistance and liberation in the face of tyranny were of great interest to the composer.
Beethoven’s Third Symphony the Eroica is revolutionary from a musical history standpoint and is widely regarded as one of the most significant works in the evolution of Western Classical Music. It’s epic size and sheer wealth of musical ideas dwarfed the late classical symphonies of Haydn and Mozart and paved a way for symphonic expression for the rest of the Nineteenth Century.
The Fourth Piano Concerto opens with just the soloist playing a pensive, quiet theme. Its dreamy, quasi-improvisatory nature may not seem as “revolutionary” as the 2 cannon shots that announce the Eroica but it is equally as effective and no less dramatic. The remainder of the Concerto has a lightness and charm that has always made this work an audience favourite.
Finally, on a personal note it’s with great pleasure that I accept the role of Artistic Director with the orchestra. Fittingly, the first piece I ever conducted with MetSO was the Egmont Overture way back in the day when we rehearsed in the old auditorium at Churchlands Senior High School. I have many fond memories with the orchestra over the years and I very much look forward to helping shape its future.
Hope to see you all at the concert.
Best Wishes
Burhan Güner
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