If the Colorado Symphony Orchestra’s season premier hints at what’s to come for the rest of the year, expect big things.
The season opener had Boettcher Concert Hall smoking Thursday night, beginning with guest pianist Jeffrey Biegel’s mastery of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy for Piano, and blowing the doors out of the chamber with a mesmerizing rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
For the symphony aficionado, the evening is a sublime dream. But the Colorado Symphony Orchestra has been creating a buzz around the notion that these shows are every bit as enjoyable for Colorado residents whose classical repertoire hails from Bugs Bunny cartoons and those who barely make it out to a concert with musicians playing music from their own century.
This CSO premier show, which encores Friday night, plays to both those worlds.
And what a show it was Thursday night. If there have ever been lingering doubts about how this world-class symphony orchestra stacks up, CSO music director Andrew Litton’s baton and passion gave the defining answer: Top this — anybody.
It was that good.
Biegel astounded the audience with an interpretation of Beethoven’s wild piano experiment that was both enormously powerful and intricately subtle. And the internationally acclaimed pianist drew the tumultuous blizzard from the piano with jaw-dropping grace. Rather than play over the orchestra, Biegel drew them in with the audience as if everyone in the chamber does this all the time.
It seemed that such a steamy first course would lead to a tired march into the Beethoven’s monumental achievement, what is probably the best piece of music ever written.
They were just getting started. From the confounding push and pull of the first movement, the entire orchestra came out fast and furious. Litton was masterful in bringing a nuance to the endlessly complex symphony not heard in Denver, maybe ever, or maybe anywhere. Pepperings of winds and big strings stood out but never washed over the rest of the orchestra. Nearly everyone in my audience section kept leaning into the performance and then was pushed back into their chairs by sweeping waves of first strings and the horns.
The third movement brought the adagio into the chamber like a welcome breeze, almost quenching the orchestra’s dizzying scherzo from the previous movement. The audience was reoriented and surprised when the big strings brought the most recognizable melody ever to life, and then the orchestra gracefully moved on. When the players paused before the fourth and final epic, the audience sat stunned.
But rather than slide into the choral, the symphony, the chorus and four principles ran toward critical mass. Jaws dropped when principle bass Kevin Deas opened what’s best known as Ode to Joy. Soprano Rachel Nicholls’ retort lit the room, the orchestra and the chorus on fire. Despite the unquestioned mastery of principles, the first strings, an explosive chorus and brilliant winds and horns, never once did anyone muscle over the rest of the orchestra.
Sure, the party faithful were there for opening night, but the three, long and boisterous curtain calls were anything but gratuitous.
Tickets are still available for a the Friday night repeat that starts at 7:30 p.m. Find out why so many generations have idolized this symphony, and why Litton, the CSO and the CSO Chorus give symphony newcomers and the most ardent fans something new to enjoy.
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The Colorado Symphony Orchestra Season Premier
Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, op. 125 “Choral”
Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy for Piano , Chirs and Orchestra, Op. 80 with guest soloist Jeffrey Biegel
Andrew Litton, conductor
The Boettcher Concert Hall in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts Complex
7:30 p.m. Friday
Tickets are $30-$91
Go to ColoradoSymphony.org or call 303.623.7876
It was an amazing performance!