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Beethoven again?
Ludwig from the Vienna Symphony, plus Boston Lyric Opera’s Rigoletto
BY DAVID WEININGER

You could forgive even an ardent music lover who, on seeing the program for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra’s FleetBoston Celebrity Series Symphony Hall concert this Wednesday, let out a cry of dismay and said: "What, Beethoven again?"

Not that there’s anything wrong with Beethoven, as Jerry Seinfeld might say. No composer occupies a more central position in our musical life, as measured both by the presence of his music and by the crushing anxiety he induced in those who followed. His genius is probably the only thing on which Schumann, Weber, Liszt, and Wagner could have agreed. Western civilization has taken him to be one of its paradigms of the expressive power of art — not only because he created some of our greatest music but because he transformed the rules that governed it. More than anyone else, he changed not only what we hear but how we hear what we now call classical music.

All of which is to saying that it ain’t for nothing that his name holds pride of place over the center of the Symphony Hall stage, emblazoned in gold for every concertgoer to see. We might imagine him not only as listening critically to the music that emanates from the stage but also as glaring at us, exhorting us not to hear each note and understand it. In many ways, we are still his listeners.

And there’s the rub. Beethoven’s music has by now penetrated the ears and the mind of the most casual listener. With the rare exception of the odd piece that doesn’t get the play it deserves — the Missa solemnis, for one, or the Bagatelles for piano — we approach his works as well-worn, infinitely familiar masterpieces being trotted out for another go. Sure, they’re great music, but rarely do they seem the revolutionary, shock-inducing works they once were.

That shock may be impossible to replicate at this late date. So for a present-day Beethoven performance to be worth something, it must offer more than just another solid run-through of the notes (as veterans of Seiji Ozawa’s BSO performances can attest). The music brings its performance history with it, and that’s a difficult standard to meet. But it isn’t an impossible one, as the Boston performances of the Sixth Symphony by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Vienna Philharmonic back in February and the Fifth and Sixth by Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic in 2001 prove.

So, you ask, what will Vladimir Fedoseyev and Vienna Symphony Orchestra add to the mix? The city’s "other" orchestra may not have the distinguished history and the refined style of the Philharmonic, but it has a distinguished history of its own. It was founded in 1900, and it gave the first performances of such masterpieces as Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. Herbert von Karajan and Wolfgang Sawallisch number among its past principal conductors.

And the program? First the Violin Concerto, as elegantly perfect a musical work as Beethoven ever wrote (the young Nikolaj Znaider will be the soloist). After intermission, the Eroica Symphony, Beethoven’s first and perhaps most remarkable announcement of his "heroic" middle-period style. One wonders what new aspect of Beethoven these performers will show us. We’ll have to be listening carefully: after all, he will be watching.

The FleetBoston Celebrity Series presents the Vienna Symphony Orchestra this Wednesday, November 5, at 8 p.m. at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. Tickets are $32 to $67; call (617) 266-1200.

CURSES! Also this Wednesday, Boston Lyric Opera kicks off its "Italian Season" with Verdi’s Rigoletto, which features not only the full range of ghastly human emotion but one of the most dreadfully fulfilled curses in the history of the stage. It’s also regarded as Verdi’s first mature masterpiece and the site of some of his most inspired music, including the aria "La donna è mobile." Stephen Lord conducts; Lorenzo Mariani directs a cast that includes tenor Gregory Turay as the Duke of Mantua and baritone William Stone in the title role. Performances, November 5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, and 18 at the Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont Street in the Theater District, are at 7:30 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $32 to $152; call (800) 447-7400.


Issue Date: October 31 - November 6, 2003
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