Chattanooga Pulse

The Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra Masterworks series presents its first concert of the season Thursday and Friday, featuring acclaimed violinist Alexandre da Costa and works by two pillars of the concert tradition: Beethoven and Brahms.

The showcase of this week’s concert is the Violin Concerto in D minor by Ludwig van Beethoven.  One of the most famous concerti in the violin repertoire, Beethoven’s work is cemented in the music timeline in between the violin work of Mozart and Mendelssohn.

By the time 1806 rolled around, Beethoven’s name was huge in the Viennese artistic community because of his prolific and unparalleled musical innovation.  Capitalizing on this, a popular concert violinist and friend named Franz Clement commissioned a violin concerto from Beethoven to be performed at a December benefit concert.

Although Beethoven wrote extensively for the violin in his quartets, sonatas and the rhapsodic triple concerto, this would be the only concerto he would write for solo violin.  Timpani blasts echo in the course of the 50-minute concerto, but the fury and fire of Beethoven’s symphonies are nearly absent—in fact, the word that most scholars and listeners use to describe it is “serene.”

Look no further than the first movement for an example of this.  The first few measures lay the foundation for the whole affair with a quietly announced melody via woodwinds moving in simple, slow harmony.  This melody never quite reaches a resolution, but instead gives way to a fully orchestrated symphonic statement before the soloist enters.

The composition of the violin concerto wasn’t all serenity and calm, though.  In fact, the score remained unfinished until moments before its concert premiere, leaving Franz Clement with the unfortunate duty of sight-reading much of it.  According to reviews published at the time, Clement even interrupted the concerto between the first and second movements to play one of his own compositions—a showpiece that he played utilizing only one string of the violin while holding the instrument upside down.

Giving the spark of life to Beethoven’s concerto this weekend with the CSO is the noted Canadian violinist Alexandre da Costa.  Da Costa has performed the work of Beethoven, Mozart, Bruch, and Tchaikovsky across the United States and Europe with such notable orchestras as The London Royal Philharmonic and The Montreal Symphony. Coupled with the Beethoven concerto, conductor Robert Bernhardt will also lead the CSO in the second symphony of Johannes Brahms.  With Beethoven’s greatness looming over his head, it took Brahms more than 20 years to compose his first symphony.  The end result was so successful that he soon left for a holiday by the sea to compose a second.

This Symphony No. 2 in D Major was yet another triumph for the composer and is considered one of his sunniest works, no doubt because it pays homage to his great friend and mentor Robert Schumann.  A close friend of the composer was full of hyperbolic praise upon first reading the score, saying that the symphony was “all rippling streams, blue sky, sunshine, and cool green shadows!”

The three great Bs of classical music—Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms—are well known to most and their work ages with grace.  The CSO knows this (there’s more Beethoven to come this season), but one of the best things about conductor Robert Bernhardt and the CSO is how they strive to make classical music accessible to the public.  There’s no pomp or pretension here, just a dedication to excellence, and for this, music lovers of all stripes can be glad.

Despite the nearly fatal premiere of his violin concerto, Beethoven still had great respect for Franz Clement and found it in himself to pen a letter to the young musician. “Go forth on the way you have hitherto traveled so beautifully, so magnificently,” Beethoven wrote.  “Nature and art vie with each other in making you a great artist. Follow both and, never fear, you will reach the great— the greatest goal possible to an artist here on earth.”

Perhaps more than any other of the classical greats, Beethoven and Brahms exhibit this glorious fusion of nature and art, and we have maestro Bernhardt and his orchestra to thank for bringing these two musical greats to Chattanooga this week.

CSO Masterworks Series: Beethoven Violin Concert
$19-$79.
8 p.m.
Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad Street
(423) 267-8583.
www.chattanoogasymphony.org