SPAC to hold Beethoven celebration to take place in 2020
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> On the heels of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 2019 season at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the partners have already announced a special program for next summer called Beethoven 2020.
In celebration of the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, a concentrated four-night event with the Philadelphia Orchestra will take place Aug. 12-15, 2020 at SPAC in Saratoga Springs, featuring the famous composer’s complete symphonic cycle.
The orchestra and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will present all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies in dialogue with music by composers of today. The Philadelphia Orchestra has commissioned works that reflect on the relevance of Beethoven’s legacy today by its composer-in-residence Gabriela Lena Frank and a diverse group of composers from her Creative Academy of Music including Jessica Hunt, Carlos Simon and Iman Habibi.
“Traversing the complete Symphonies of Beethoven is a profound and deeply moving musical experience. To hear them under the baton of the great Yannick NézetSéguin, in such a concentrated period, will be an artistic experience unlike anything we have ever presented at SPAC,” SPAC president and CEO Elizabeth Sobol said in a press release. “Though Yannick and the Orchestra will also be performing the cycle in Philadelphia and at Carnegie Hall, only at SPAC will audiences be able to experience the symphonies in this immersive and virtually unprecedented manner.”
Nézet-Séguin added, “We are incredibly excited to share the majesty of Beethoven’s masterpieces in four consecutive nights with our beloved fans in Saratoga. By pairing his groundbreaking works with new companion pieces, we look forward to creating fresh perspectives on Beethoven’s legacy today. It will surely be an exhilarating and deeply moving experience unlike anything we’ve ever presented before at SPAC.”
The first night of Beethoven 2020 will feature Symphony No. 8, Symphony No. 4 and Symphony No. 7; followed by Symphony No. 2 and Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) the second night; Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”) the third night; and Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”) on the final night, during which the Albany Pro Musica Concert Chorus will perform as well. Each evening will also include a Work in Dialogue with Beethoven by different artists.
Beethoven was just 25 when he wrote his First Symphony. Delightful and high-spirited, floating on strains of Mozart and Haydn, it’s a fascinating glimpse of the greatness and genius to come—all on full, glorious display in the climactic Ninth. Written just a few short years before his death, “Beethoven’s profound ode to brotherhood, salvation, and pure joy reminds us why we are here as an orchestra,” Yannick said in the release, “and why we constantly try to make our world better by playing music.”
The Beethoven 2020 Pass for all four programs is available online at spac. org at a discount of 15 percent off for the general public and at a discount of 25 percent off for SPAC members.