First Symphonies are many times the most daunting tasks a composer can undertake. Composers are no different than us: they have fears, self-consciousness, and doubts about putting something new into the world.
Beginnings are also very exciting. The uncertainty of untapped possibility can lead to extraordinary things. It is in the context of creation that we explore the idea of the “Three B’s” (traditionally know as Bach, Beethoven, & Brahms).
To open the first official Symphony of the Rockies concert, I wanted to take tradition and create the foundation for another 70 years of symphonic innovation and excellence. Starting with Brittany J. Green who is known for sonic world building and for exploring the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems, In the Beginning tracks the creation of a possibility, its destruction, and what remains.
Beethoven was not always Beethoven. Before he was composer of the 5th and 9th Symphonies, he was a young upstart virtuoso pianist from Bonn, trying to make his mark in the cultural capital of the world, Vienna. He composed in the shadows of Mozart, who would become possibly the greatest musician who ever lived, and Haydn, who had created over 100 symphonies.
Beethoven took some time to write his First Symphony, which appeared when he was 30. In the Symphony, we find hints of the future master and splendid imitations from the best of Mozart and Haydn, who was Beethoven’s teacher for a time.
You’ll notice there is no Bach on our “Three B’s” concert. This is intentional. As Symphony of the Rockies, it’s our mission to advance the symphonic arts and become the most approachable orchestra in the west. Some of the traditional “B’s” have been replaced first with Brittany Green, and next, Beyoncé. But this is not any Beyoncé. John Clay Allen has remixed and upended Crazy in Love, for symphonic orchestra, and as a true remix, he has dropped musical quotations from across the ages. See if you can spot any.
For the second half of the program, we have another composer who was deeply distraught that his creations would not live up to what came before. Brahms was now living in the shadow of Beethoven. The Piano Concerto, one of his early works at the age of 24, came out of his relationship with Robert and Clara Schumann. It was said that the opening is Brahms’s depiction of Robert’s attempt at suicide by plunging into the Rhine River.
Brahms was constantly being compared to Beethoven, and it would take the former another 25 years to write an actual symphony. The Piano Concerto set out to be a symphony, but it would fall short. Brahms couldn’t yet bring himself to present something to the world that could be compared to one of the great masters, so he opted for a less controversial introduction into the symphonic world. We are the beneficiaries of this magnificently inspired Piano Concerto.