Lots of Ludwig!

I can’t believe that May 1 marks the final concert of my 20th anniversary season with the Kingston Symphony. This year has gone by so quickly – filled with great concerts and unforgettable music – and I’m truly looking forward to this final concert.

Not only will this concert feature three beautiful Beethoven pieces, but also three local musicians of outstanding calibre.

Our concertmaster, Gisèle Dalbec, along with our principal cellist Wolf Tormann and local composer and pianist Michel Szczesniak will play the famous Triple Concerto. The program also includes the Egmont Overture and Symphony No. 5.

There are very few tickets left to this concert, so if you don’t want to miss this homegrown musical treat, make sure to purchase yours today!

Our annual Beat Beethoven Run takes place on Sunday, June 5. The orchestra will then play another Beethoven piece, his third symphony, Eroica, as runners embark on and 8-kilometre or 4-kilometre route. This is annually one of the biggest fundraisers for the Kingston Symphony Association, a non-profit organization, and the members of the orchestra sincerely enjoy taking part. We’re hoping this year will be a little drier than last year, but we’ll have a good time no matter what.

So in honour of all this Beethoven, I thought I’d share some fun facts about the sometimes misunderstood master musician.

Did you know that the Eroica was originally titled Bonaparte, and dedicated to Napoleon? Beethoven thought that Napoleon would bring democracy and the enlightenment to all of Europe. Beethoven was so disgusted with the leader when he proclaimed himself emperor, he scratched Bonaparte’s name from the title and left a gaping hole in the paper.

Beethoven started going deaf in his twenties, but kept composing music. In order to hear the notes, he sawed the legs off the piano so he could hear the vibrations as he played. By the time he was 40, he was completely deaf.

Beethoven first performed for an audience when he was seven years old, but didn’t make an impression on his audience. It was when he was 13 that he began improvising his own work on the piano, and was encouraged to publish these sonatas.

Beethoven’s final masterpiece is an ironic one. He suffered at the hands of his violently alcoholic father while growing up, and then his progressive and eventually complete deafness cut his spirits in his adult life. And yet, he was able to compose the Ninth Symphony and its “Ode to Joy,” arguably one of the most beautiful compositions in history.

Many musicians and music critics – including Beethoven’s one-time teacher, Joseph Haydn—actually feared Beethoven’s work because it relied so much on passion rather than the mathematically precise nature consistent with the Classical style of the age.

And this, my friends, is what music is all about. I hope you find Beethoven’s works as powerful as I do. If you can’t make it to the concert on May 1, then stop by Confederation Park on June 5 as we play for the Beat Beethoven Run.

Thank you for supporting the Kingston Symphony in its 57th year, my 20th as music director. It’s been a phenomenal season, and dare I say it, next season will be even better. Stay tuned for more information about our season launch and artists who will perform with us next year.