Elgin Symphony opens season with Beethoven's Fifth

The monthslong wait is over for Elgin Symphony Orchestra music director Andrew Grams, who opens his second season with concerts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Hemmens Cultural Center.

Grams' debut season was limited to three programs due to his previous conducting schedule, which was set prior to his ESO appointment in June 2013.

For the ESO's 65th season, Grams has cleared his schedule and will be on the podium for seven of the nine concert weekends, with this weekend's opening program consisting of Beethoven's ever-popular Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, with the first half of the concert offering Carl Maria Von Weber's overture to his opera "Der Freischütz" ("The Freeshooter"), and a pair of Richard Wagner works, the prelude to "Die Meistersinger" and the Act 1 prelude to "Lohengrin."

"I'm really excited about working with the musicians again. I haven't seen them since January, and I think we've got a program that's full of music that I love, and I know we can all really sink our teeth into," Grams said. "That's because it's going to be so familiar to the musicians, and the audience is going to love what's going on as well."

Most familiar to all music-lovers, of course, is Beethoven's Fifth, which Grams has chosen as a special way to show off the special qualities of the Elgin Symphony.

"One of the reasons I chose a program that's so familiar, not only to the players but also to the audience, is I want to reveal not just new insights about the repertoire itself, but I want everybody to hear just how the orchestra is going to sound, going forward," he said. "With music that's so familiar, you're going to have an opportunity to tell how well the orchestra is playing. I think these Weber and Wagner selections, and then the Beethoven Fifth, are so well-known that everybody's going to say, 'Wow! The Elgin Symphony sounds different; they sound new.' Instead of listening to music they're not that familiar with and they're thinking about that, now they're thinking about how wonderful the orchestra sounds."

Grams said one of the reasons he decided to place music by Wagner and Beethoven on the same concert is because Wagner revered Beethoven as a model and influence. "Wagner's treatise on conducting spends quite a bit of time discussing Beethoven's Fifth as a composition and how it really affected Wagner's development as a composer," Grams said.

"As for Weber's 'Die Freischütz' overture, that sort of clears that path from the classical forms of Beethoven toward more Wagnerian tendencies, also very beautiful. That sense of operatic picture-painting that Wagner is known for, Weber does as well."

Beethoven and Wagner, and their progression to the music of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) are a theme that will carry throughout the ESO season. Grams offered a tantalizing preview last October by conducting Mahler's First Symphony in his debut concert as music director.

This season will also include a string-orchestra transcription of Beethoven's Opus 135 Quartet in late March, and he will conclude the season on May 2 and 3, 2015, with Mahler's arrangement of Beethoven's Ninth ("Choral") Symphony. Mahler's music will open that program with his 1888 symphonic poem "Totenfeier" ("Funeral Rites"), which five years later became the first movement of his "Resurrection" Symphony.

The complete season schedule, including dates for concerts at the Hemmens Cultural Center, 45 Symphony Way, Elgin, and Schaumburg Prairie Center for the Arts at 201 Schaumburg Court, along with ticket information, is available at elgin symphony.org.