Beginning with a long and expanded introduction in the first movement, San Jose State University Symphony Orchestra performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 7” with a variety of string and woodwind instruments.
The director of the School of Music and Dance, Fred Cohen, conducted the orchestra performance at the Hammer Theatre on Saturday.
The performance celebrated the acquisition of an important Beethoven document by the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library.
Curator of the Beethoven Center Patricia Stroh said the document was the “unique first edition score of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony that he inscribed himself to this woman named Antonie Brentano.”
Stroh said Brentano was part of a family that was very close to Beethoven, particularly during the time when he was writing the Seventh Symphony.
“What makes this really compelling is that there are some theories saying that this woman was Beethoven’s ‘Immortal Beloved,’ ” Stroh said.
Stroh said the Beethoven Center was contacted by the people who owned
the score.
They requested the center’s help to identify what the document was.
“We made pleas to the American Beethoven Society and our
special donors. They helped us raise the money to pay for it,” Stroh said.
The center eventually purchased the score through an antiquarian dealer.
Stroh added that the concert was “put together to celebrate this acquisition, to thank the donors and to give students the experience of learning this piece as orchestra musicians.”
Music senior Monica Willemsz, who played in the second violins, said it was wonderful to play Beethoven’s music.
“In the piece, there is a lot of excitement and there is so much contrast. That’s why I think Beethoven is one of the great composers,” Willemsz said. “He makes the dynamic flow and he gives new different context to play. While they are different, they match very well.”
Willemsz really enjoyed the performance and realized that Cohen was dancing a lot while conducting.
She loved the second movement the most.
“As a second violin, it’s really nice when we have parts that are featuring us because usually, the first violin gets all the glory,” Willemsz said. “In the second movement, there is the melody that has only half notes, we get to gush as much as we want to because we want to bring it up.”
Sitting at the corner of the stage, music performance senior Victor Ruiz played the double bass.
“It’s a very difficult symphony to perform because there are a lot of things that we have to watch out for in regards to the rhythm and musicality of it,”
Ruiz said.
Another challenging part of performing this symphony is the balancing between the instruments.
Ruiz said, “When the winds have their own solo, the strings have to be really soft so the winds can be heard.”
He added that when the winds have to accompany strings, they have to play
very softly.
San Jose resident Pat Long and her husband were contributors to the acquisition.
Long was a music major who really liked Beethoven’s music.
Therefore, she was happy to contribute because it was an important score.
When talking about the symphony concert, Long said, “I was very impressed by the conductor not using a score.”
The exhibit “Beethoven Loves the Brentano’s” is held at the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies until Dec. 15.
The King Library’s Beethoven Center is a resource center that is open to anybody, including students, researchers, and musicians in the community.
Stroh said the acquisition of the first edition of “Symphony No. 7” score and the manuscript of Beethoven’s letter to Franz Brentano regarding the gift
is special.
“It’s something that they are not going to see anywhere else in the area,” she said.
She added that the center has digitized the score and anyone who is interested in looking at the score can visit the center to see it.
