ESO's Beethoven weekend 'stirs the blood'

One of the great musical celebrations of the brotherhood of man is on display this weekend, as the Elgin Symphony Orchestra on Friday opened its 2010-11 season with Ludwig Van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 ("Choral") at the Hemmens Theatre. Additional performances are tonight and Sunday afternoon.

For these concerts, music director Robert Hanson and the ESO are joined by a 160-voice chorus comprised of the Elgin Choral Union and Chicago's Wicker Park Choral Singers, along with the Beethoven Festival Chorus an ensemble of about 30 high school singers representing several Northwest suburban school music programs. The professional solo quartet is soprano Ollie Watts Davis, mezzo-soprano Viktoria Vizin, tenor Peder Reiff and bass Kurt Link.

Considered one of the landmark works of Western musical culture, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has been an inspiration for audiences ever since its 1824 premiere in Vienna.

Hanson has long championed the Ninth. He knows the score intimately, right from the opening allegro, followed by one of classical music's most famous scherzo movements with its powerful timpani strokes; then, the third-movement adagio, one of Beethoven's most sublime creations.

But it's the famous finale and its vocal expression of Friedrich Schiller's famous poem, "Ode to Joy," that really stirs the blood. In Friday's concert, led by a multi-layered introduction of the famous "Ode to Joy" tune that builds its way to the full voice of the orchestra, bass Link got the vocal fireworks underway with the famous proclamation, "O friends, not these tones!" and the symphony resolutely sailed to its triumphant conclusion. Hanson took the brief orchestral coda at breakneck speed, and his players responded brilliantly, lifting the audience to a standing ovation.

Prior to intermission, Hanson conducted "Tree of Life," a short piece for brass ensemble commissioned by Elgin native Daniel Brewbaker for last year's opening of the new Sherman Hospital; following it was the familiar "Variations on a Theme of Haydn" by Johannes Brahms.

Friday's concert was spectacular, and it will likely become even more polished as the weekend progresses because it is being saved for posterity. The Beethoven Ninth is being recorded for release later this fall on a compact disc on the Elgin Symphony's own label, under the title "Triumph and Joy: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Elgin Symphony Orchestra LIVE!"

The CD can be pre-ordered through Sunday at a special $18 price ($20 thereafter), plus $5 shipping and handling. Call the ESO box office at (847) 888-4000, inquire in the lobby during this weekend's concerts or visit elginsymphony.org.