After a 20-month pause in deference to the pandemic — during which period they doubtless had lots of time to rehearse — the UCSB Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Maxim Kuzin, will offer a live concert, with performers and audience present in the same room at the same time, 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 29, in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall (UCSB Music Building).
The program, originally planned for a June 2020 celebration of Beethoven‘s 250th birthday (baptized Dec. 17, 1770), includes the Overture to the composer’s only opera “Fidelio, Opus 72 (1806),” and his gorgeous “Symphony No. 6 in F-Major, Opus 68, ‘Pastoral’ ” (1808).
Considered simply as an opera among operas, “Fidelio” is usually something of a disappointment for Beethoven fans (opera, in any case, not being their main thing).
There are many stirring, noble passages in it, to be sure, but overall, the romantic drama seems not quite great enough to have Beethoven’s name on it.
He fiddled with it for years, trying to make it work, and everybody says each change really did improve it, but in the end, it never became a hit and survives in the repertory through the grace of the name, “Beethoven.”
It wasn’t just that he didn’t possess, say, Mozart’s genius for music drama (who did?). It was mainly that his heart just wasn’t in the form — one gets the feeling he only undertook it because opera was how most of his successful contemporaries made their money.
He wrote four overtures for it: three when it was still called “Leonore,” and one after the name had been changed to “Fidelio.”
This last, the briefest and most dynamic, is the one that begins the opera today, although the “Leonore No. 3” is sometimes played before Act Two. The three “Leonore” pieces are really concert overtures, even tone poems — i.e., ends in themselves — while the “Fidelio” seems more likely to be followed by an opera.
“The only thing a piece of music can ‘tell’ you is what was going on in the composer’s mind when he wrote it,” said Beethoven.
We should remember this statement while we listen to the “Pastoral Symphony.” Beethoven is not painting nature, not trying to imitate the sights and sounds of the natural world.
He is telling us how nature makes him feel, what is going on in his mind as he experiences the rustic landscape. Thus, the legend of the first movement, “Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside,” is the key to the whole enterprise.
Admission to this concert is $10 general, $7 seniors and serving military, $7 non-UCSB students with ID, free for children under age 12 and UCSB students with ID. Tickets can be purchased in person at the UCSB AS Ticket Office (UCEN Room 1535, across from Corwin Pavilion), by calling 805-893-2064, or online at www.music.ucsb.edu/news/purchase-tickets.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.