BRATTLEBORO — Whether you experienced the magic in the dark theatre during the power outage that disrupted the June 12 performance at the Latchis, or missed it entirely, the good news is that the Windham Orchestra's interrupted performance of Beethoven's Ode to Joy has been rescheduled.
On Sunday, July 10 at 3 pm, at the Latchis Theatre on Main Street, the Windham Orchestra, under the direction of Hugh Keelan, will present Beethoven's iconic Symphony No. 9, with the Windham Festival Chorus. Admission is by donation, and everyone is welcome.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, known as the Choral or the Ode to Joy, is considered one of the greatest musical compositions ever written. In it, the composer addresses the highest hopes, struggles and gratifications of the human condition. It is a powerful human narrative, a challenging journey, but more certain of its destination, more elevated in its aspirations than perhaps anything that had been written before.
The Ninth occupies an iconic place in cultures far beyond the one called “classical music.” We hear the Ode to Joy in commercials and pop-culture references, it saturates education systems, it was an essential accompaniment to the fall of the Berlin Wall and A Clockwork Orange; the Rainbow Theater in London (where Jimi Hendrix burnt his first guitar) would always play the Ninth at the end of a rock concert. These are easy examples of the diversity this work gathers around itself.
The symphony was the first example of a major composer using voices in a symphony (thus making it a choral symphony). The words are sung during the final movement by four vocal soloists and a chorus. They were taken from the Ode to Joy, a poem written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803, with additions made by the composer.
The first movement deals with mystery, suffering, and the possibility of transcendence, not yet the reality. The fast Scherzo, placed second, is sharply funny, briefly consoling, but seems especially interested in making vividly present a demonic energy and life force. The third movement, Adagio molto e cantabile, also deeply mysterious, speaks of solace and deepest calm. Each of these elements must be experienced and accepted for the transcendent to become manifest in the incredible finale.
For more information about this performance, visit www.bmcvt.org or www.windhamorchestra.org.