View from the Green Room: ‘We do Beethoven rather well’

REVIEW: The Hibernian Orchestra at Christ Church Cathedral

The Hibernian Orchestra is the orchestra that keeps giving. It’s been reaching out to provincial towns and cities around the island for over 50 years and now it’s the leading voluntary orchestra in the country, and its members – who are all top-class musicians in their own right – come from many backgrounds. 

There are music teachers here along with students, pre-professionals, trained players from Ireland and abroad pursuing other careers. All these players are driven by their love of music and their dedication to the highest possible performance standards.

John Finucane, Ireland’s leading clarinettist, has been MD for over 30 years and his professionalism is the driving force behind the orchestra’s quest for excellence. I sought John out at interval because the first half of this concert is a delight. He’s got that rainbow rim of pride in his band and his gentle understatement that "we do Beethoven rather well" is a delight.

The opening Beethoven (1770-1827) Cariolan Overture was composed as incidental music to a play and works well as a tone poem for tonight’s concert. There are so many competing forces at work here – triumphalism, loyalty, familial love, vengeance and mob justice – that Beethoven would have had enough for an opera. And Beethoven just loves conflict and all competing forces have their symphonic say. 

The main C minor theme has plenty to say about Coriolanus’s determination to invade Rome, while the more tender E-flat major theme is just the thing for the pleadings of his mother to leg it! No matter – our hero’s self-inflicted demise comes in a quiet space after a drama of war.

The Mozart (1756-1791) Clarinet Concerto is a joy and Finucane’s performance has the master’s touch. The concerto was one of Amadeus’ last compositions and its score is sublime. It’s a work that blends gently lyrical passages with demands for technical brilliance for a composition that’s considered a masterpiece. 

The concerto is the first great piece written for what was then a relatively young instrument from the early 18th century. Mozart always knew who he was writing for and he wrote this concerto for his friend, Anton Stadler, who was then the most gifted clarinettist in Vienna.

The interweaving between John Finucane and the orchestra is fascinating as the soloist soars above the band. Their understanding of just where soloist and band are in the score is uncanny, as John’s gestures and nods keep everyone on track.

The exquisite adagio, written in simple song form, is music of sublime simplicity, while the rondo finale projects an air of gentle reconciliation that contradicts the composer’s physical state some two months prior to his death.

Beethoven’s 1803 ‘Sinfonia Eroica’ (heroic symphony) broke boundaries in symphonic form, length, harmony, emotional and cultural content. The Eroica was a landmark in the transition between the Classical and the Romantic era and is also considered to be the first Romantic symphony.

Beethoven originally dedicated this third symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte, who he believed embodied the democratic and anti-monarchical ideals of the French Revolution. However, bread-and-butter issues intervened. In the autumn of 1804, Beethoven withdrew his dedication of the third symphony to Napoleon fearing it might cost him the composer's fee and re-dedicated his third symphony to Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz.

The symphony, nevertheless, still carried the title ‘Bonaparte’. Beethoven's secretary, Ferdinand Ries recalled: "I was the first to tell him the news that Bonaparte had declared himself Emperor, whereupon he broke into a rage and exclaimed, ‘So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of Man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!'" 

Beethoven went to the table, seized the top of the title-page, tore it in half and threw it on the floor and renamed the work ‘Sinfonia Eroica’. 

The work is yet another milestone work in classical music. It is twice as long as the symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. The first movement alone is almost as long as a classical symphony. Eroica covers more emotional ground than Beethoven's earlier symphonies and academics described it as a key milestone in the transition between Classicism and Romanticism that would define Western art music in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

The second movement especially displays a great emotional range, from the misery of the funeral march theme, to the relative solace of happier days. There’s a huge emotional shove to the finale with its lengthy set of variations and a fugue to close it out.

Yes…The Hibernian Orchestra ‘do Beethoven rather well’.