Santa Fe Symphony to perform Beethoven's Ninth

May 13—Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is regarded by many critics and musicologists as a masterpiece of Western classical music.

By the time of its 1824 premier, the composer was completely deaf. At the end of the piece, the crowd burst into applause, but Ludwig van Beethoven, who had been a few measures behind the symphony, continued to conduct. The contralto walked over to the composer and turned him around to accept the rousing applause.

The Santa Fe Symphony will perform the Beethoven classic on Sunday, May 19, at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

The concert will open with Hector Berlioz's "Les nuits d'été, op.7 (Summer Nights)" with soprano Ana María Martínez.

"It's a song cycle, quite possibly the most beautiful thing he ever wrote," said conductor/music director Guillermo Figueroa, a known Berlioz fan.

The piece was originally written as separate songs before the composer decided to knit them together into a song cycle.

"Les nuits d'été" is a setting of six poems by Théophile Gautier. The cycle, completed in 1841, was originally for soloist and piano accompaniment. Berlioz orchestrated one of the songs in 1843, and did the same for the other five in 1856.

"If people are used to the grandiose Berlioz, this is a very subtle, gentle piece, but also ravishingly beautiful," Figueroa said.

The songs form a unified whole by virtue of the single authorship of the words and the composer's use throughout of delicate, atmospheric musical shadings framed by exuberant opening and closing ones reflecting the themes of unrequited or lost love.

"The last line, 'I want to go where love never ends' to me refers to paradise," Figueroa said.

Grammy Award-winning soprano Martínez will perform the cycle. Figueroa said he performed the piece with Martínez at Carnegie Hall back when he was leading the Puerto Rican Symphony.

Martínez possesses "absolutely expressive and incredible range," he said. "She can also sound like a soprano with a lower register that is about almost an alto."

Fittingly, May 7 marked the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's masterwork the Ninth Symphony.

"It's easily among the symphony's most important works ever written," Figueroa added.

The Ninth was the first symphony to incorporate vocal soloists and chorus into what, until then, had been a purely instrumental genre.

"He makes the symphony a dramatic work," Figueroa said.

While other composers stuck with the formula, Beethoven defied all the rules.

"Symphony No. 9" broke many patterns of the classical style of Western music to foreshadow the monolithic works of Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner and other composers of the later Romantic era. Its orchestra was unusually large, and its length — more than an hour — was extraordinary.

"To this day, symphonies recognize this as one of the most revolutionary works ever done," Figueroa said. "It's very complex and long. Every movement relates to each other dramatically and emotionally. You feel a continuance of expression that is unparalleled in history."

People whose knowledge of the piece is limited to the "Ode to Joy" section are often surprised that it comes 35 minutes later at the end.

"The way he manipulates the orchestra and our emotions when he introduces that theme," Figueroa said. "No more of these sad songs; let's do something more joyful. He also recapitulates all the themes from the last movement — something that has never been done before."