Review: Thunderous Beethoven Opens Music Guild Concert

By PABLO CORÁ | Special to the Palisadian-Post

Last Friday, a rare October thunderstorm brought added drama to an already dramatic program as St. Matthew’s Music Guild opened its 34th season of concerts in Pacific Palisades with a “Beethoven Extravaganza,” performed by The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s, conducted by their new Music Director Dwayne S. Milburn.

Shortly before the Oct. 12 program, as 75 Music Guild subscribers were finishing dessert at a pre-concert dinner on the church’s patio, thunder, lightning and heavy rain sent those at the dinner scrambling for cover inside the church. The downpour continued as the program got underway with Beethoven’s “Coriolan” Overture, providing special effects at the end of the performance.

The “Coriolan” Overture was composed in 1807 for a production of the play, “Coriolanus” by Joseph von Collin. The play recounts episodes from the life of Caius Marcius, a Roman general who was honored for his bravery in daring military battles by being given the honorific “Coriolanus.”

The overture suggests the powerful figure of Coriolanus with heavy, block chords featuring all of the winds and timpani then transitions to a tender, lyrical melody in the strings representing Coriolanus’ mother and sister, who counsel him against taking revenge on his Roman rivals.

Throughout, Milburn and the orchestra played the two main themes off one another with skill—at once forceful and militaristic and then quietly, almost hushed, as if the hero’s mother and sister were whispering to him in his tent.

The piece ends very quietly, with lengthy periods of silence. During the last few bars, each time there was a rest, one could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. The audience was stunned at the timing, as if it had all been pre-arranged.

Beethoven’s “Fourth Symphony” is in some ways a forgotten masterpiece, being sandwiched, as it is, between the twin pillars of the “Eroica” (Third) and mighty Fifth symphonies. Composed around the same time as “Coriolanus,” both the overture and symphony were premiered at a private concert at the Viennese palace of Beethoven’s friend and patron, Prince Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz.

In the first movement, Beethoven borrows a trick from his teacher Haydn and begins with a slow, mysterious Adagio, followed by a boisterous and sometimes jovial opening statement in the home key of F major.

The orchestra’s wind section was the star of this movement, bouncing along like so many adolescents having a grand time running in a field or meadow on a summer day.

We are told in the orchestra’s bio that many of its members have been a part of the group for 15 or 20 years and it shows; there was great camaraderie and mutual affection evident in the way the various sections of the orchestra tossed themes back and forth throughout the symphony.

The concert concluded with a performance of Beethoven’s final piano concerto, the “Emperor.”

Composed at a time when Vienna was under siege and invasion by the French, the work contains many martial and heroic themes but also moments of great beauty—especially in the lush and tender Adagio movement.

Guest artist was the South African pianist Petronel Malan, who has been nominated for multiple Grammy Awards and whose career was launched at an early age by an impressive five gold medal wins at international piano competitions.

Throughout the concerto, Malan displayed amazing technical virtuosity combined with an ability to draw the audience in to the quietest passages. The brilliant cadenzas scattered about the first movement were impressive for their power, especially in the resonant St. Matthew’s Church, but at the same time there were moments in the second movement when one almost needed to strain to hear the beautiful playing of the orchestra and pianist—it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Milburn proved himself a skilled accompanist, always sensitive to subtle changes in tempo and delicate changes of mood emanating from Malan. It was an impressive opener for the Music Guild season.