Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus
www.cgmc.com Carols and a selection from Handel’s “Messiah” will be among the holidaythemed works performed by the chorus.
8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, King Avenue United Methodist Church, 299 King Ave.; 6 p.m. Sunday, Lord of Life Lutheran Church, 2480 W. Dublin-Granville Road
$25
For those who can’t connect the dots between the pieces featured in the latest program from ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, don’t worry.
This weekend, the orchestra will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 — two works with no obvious connection.
The composers hail from different parts of the globe (Beethoven was born in Germany; Shostakovich, in Russia), and these particular pieces are separated by more than 150 years (Symphony No. 3 debuted in 1805; Cello Concerto No. 1, in 1959).
Yet, for ProMusica Music Director David Danzmayr, the pairing makes sense.
“I can’t even tell exactly why,” said Danzmayr, who will conduct the concerts at Worthington United Methodist Church on Saturday and the Southern Theatre on Sunday. “I think it must have something to do with the structure and the similarities and also the contrasts.”
Some programs, Danzmayr said, feature pieces with clear parallels, but this weekend’s offerings represent “a much more unclear fit, a much more maybe personal fit, where I more subjectively ... hear or see the parallels of the rhythm, of the structure, of the attack.”
Guest musician Natalie Clein, who will perform the solo parts on the cello concerto, says that the composers are compatible.
“Beethoven and Shostakovich always go well together, partly because of the bubbling energy that both of these composers had, albeit from very different worlds and very different times,” said Clein, a 40-year-old native of
5:30 p.m. Saturday, Worthington United Methodist Church, 600 High St. Worthington; 7 p.m. Sunday, Southern Theatre, 21 E. Main St.
614-464-0066, www. promusicacolumbus.org; 1-800745-3000, www.ticketmaster. com Saturday, $37; Sunday, $12 to $50 Dorset, England, who now lives in London.
The Shostakovich piece was composed in the censorious environment of the Soviet Union; Clein said that the soloist’s part is akin to a “human battling against something bigger than himor herself.”
“He was under a huge amount pressure to conform, which he didn’t want to do,” Clein said of the composer, and the piece reflects his nonconformity.
“He’s very clever because it doesn’t finish on a note of optimism,” Clein said. “For me, it finishes on a note of defiance.”
Meanwhile, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (also known as his Eroica symphony) was chosen in part through a process of elimination.
During this season and next, ProMusica will perform Beethoven’s nine symphonies; with one exception, this season will feature the composer’s oddnumbered symphonies and next season, his even-numbered symphonies.
The odd-numbered symphonies, Danzmayr said, tend to be “aggressive, direct, dramatic and so on, maybe with the exception of No. 1.”
Since Executive Director Janet Chen wanted to open the current season with Symphony No. 5, and Danzmayr wanted to close with Symphony No. 7, the leaders were left to choose between symphony Nos. 1 and 3.
Danzmayr decided that Symphony No. 1 worked better for concerts planned for April, so Symphony No. 3 was selected for this weekend’s concerts.
“We always look at the whole season when we pair and when we shift pieces around,” he said.
Also on the bill is “Within Her Arms,” a work by contemporary composer Anna Clyne. The piece is part of a season-long emphasis on works by foreign-born composers who immigrated to the U.S.; Clyne was born in England but now resides in New York City.
Fittingly, an element of chance informed the piece’s inclusion on the program: After hearing the work, Danzmayr was struck by the similarity between the last name of Clyne and that of the show’s guest cellist, Clein.
“I said to (Janet), ‘Look, I found this piece by this English immigrant in America. Her name is also Clyne, just written different,’” Danzmayr said. “Janet and I looked at each other, and I said to her, ‘This is meant to be, right?’”