KSO, guest pianist tackle challenging pieces with aplomb

Going from the brutality of hell to heaven in the course of a single concert isn’t an easy feat to accomplish gracefully.

But Thursday night at the Tennessee Theatre, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and pianist Jeffery Biegel did precisely that with performances of William Bolcom’s challenging “Prometheus,” and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9 in D Minor,” Op. 125.

Beigel, for whom “Prometheus” was written, with the KSO joining eight other organizations in commissioning the work, not only played the piano with consummate skill, but physically expressed the beating down of Prometheus who is subjected to the vengeance of Zeus for giving sacred fire to mortals.

It was Beigel’s bright idea for “Prometheus” to use the same orchestral and choral forces as Beethoven employed in the “Ninth,” intending it as a concert companion piece and counterweight to the symphony, as well as a strong piece on its own.

It isn’t a piece one claims to like, in the usual sense of enjoyment, but credit certainly goes to Richman for taking on a work that is as challenging for the performers as it is the listeners on the same concert he is mastering Beethoven’s “Ninth.”

Using Lord Byron’s poem about Prometheus’ ordeal as the choral text, the Knoxville Choral Society chanted the first two stanzas, set against crashing, brutal chords from the piano and often sharp, angular sounds from the orchestra.

While Byron relates Prometheus’ pain and agony, Bolcom is delivering his warning that modern man is risking being overpowered by technology.

Although “Prometheus” accomplished a lot more, its demands on the audience gave some indication of how the first hearers of Beethoven’s symphonies must have felt upon hearing a kind of music they had never heard before.

Richman’s handling of the opening of the first movement of Beethoven’s “Ninth,” with its shimmering background and fragments of theme being provocatively introduced was a pure delight to hear.

The back and forth of the bitterness of struggle and the exhilaration of overcoming it were especially beautiful moments.

Then the unleashed joy of the second movement, with the hymn-like melody in the oboes and clarinets, was genuine pleasure.

By the time the “Finale” arrived in this wonderful performance, with both the power of chorus and the soloists joining in, it was easy to see why, after the “Ninth,” nobody else dared write a symphony for a while.

Magnificent!

Harold Duckett is a freelance contributor to the News Sentinel.

© 2011, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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