Venue

Perelman Theater
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
300 S Broad St
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Duration

Program Notes

Symphony No. 8
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

It was Wagner who proclaimed Beethoven to be a titan wrestling with the gods.  Although he did not hear the sublime power of his artistic temperament in the Eighth Symphony, as he claims to have heard it in the Seventh, he still recognized it as “characteristic of the man, mingling tragedy with force and a Herculean vigor with the games and caprices of a child.”  The mingling achieves a classical balance in this symphony.  It is humorful without being humorous — playful without being jocular.  The manner is graceful and the action lean.

It would be wholly unexpected in successive works — especially those of large proportions — to hear repeated outbursts of the kind of superhuman energy of which Beethoven was capable.  Indeed, taken as a whole, the nine symphonies offer remarkably satisfying contrasts of content, with the even-numbered ones generally not depicting states of mind that call for the intensity of realization that is in evidence in the most imposing of the odd-numbered ones.  Such contrasts nurtured Beethoven’s spiritual development with a balance and counterbalance that seemed completely natural.

The effervescent Symphony No. 8 came virtually on the heels of the Seventh — only four months elapsed between the end of one and the beginning of the other.  In spirit it is totally devoid of the emotionally troubled atmosphere that plagued Beethoven during the period of its composition.  Such distractions, after all, do not tell us very much about the inner life of a genius like Beethoven, who “lived in constant and often undignified discomfort,” as Donald Tovey observed.

Except for the First Symphony, the Eighth is the shortest of the nine — too short, complained some critics, just as they had thought the Seventh too long.  When the “little Symphony in F,” as Beethoven referred to it, had less success than its predecessor, Beethoven said “That’s because it is so much better.”  He could not have meant that as anything more than a brash judgment, reacting to his listeners’ inability to recognize the different image of him that it projects.  The reviewer for the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung attributed the audience’s somewhat lesser enthusiasm for the symphony partly to the faulty judgment of having it follow the Seventh Symphony on the same program.  “If this symphony should be performed alone hereafter, we have no doubt of its success.”

Composed in 1812 (or given its final form not long thereafter) for a standard orchestra of double woodwinds, brasses, timpani and the usual string choirs, the Eighth Symphony has no slow movement.  Instead Beethoven writes a second movement with the marking Allegretto scherzando.  Its principal material is based on a four-voiced canon Beethoven improvised at a dinner attended by Johann Mälzel, the inventor of the metronome, a device the usefulness of which Beethoven and others were acknowledging.  The movement’s metronome-like motion supporting its infectious good-natured character earned it a spotlight position among the symphony’s four movements, threatened perhaps only by the “unbuttoned” spirit of the Finale.

George K. Diehl

Musicians

Flute
Edward Shultz, Principal
Frances Tate

Oboe
Geoffrey Deemer, Principal
Evan Ocheret

Clarinet
Doris J. Hall-Gulati, Principal
Rie Suzuki

Bassoon
Michelle Rosen, Principal
Zachary Feingold

Horn
John David Smith, Principal
Lyndsie Wilson

Trumpet
Rodney Marsalis, Principal
Tim Hudson

Timpani
Barry Dove, Principal

Piano
José Melendez, Principal