ARTS AND HUMANITIES: Aiken Symphony celebrates the Three B's (2024)

In the 1880s, the German conductor Hans Von Bulow personally anointed what has sometimes been called the Holy Trinity of Classical Music: Bach, the Father; Beethoven, the Son; and Brahms, the Holy Ghost.

Over time, musicologists representing nationalities other than German have offered up their own candidates for inclusion in the three B’s. The French have suggested Hector Berlioz instead of Johannes Brahms. To push forward the selection to modern times, some Americans favor Samuel Barber.

For the Nov. 3 concert of the Aiken Symphony, Maestro Scott Weiss remains loyal to the three composers originally dubbed as Western music’s primary triad.

The program begins with Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Prelude in B Minor” composed in 1738. This will be, of course, an orchestral transcription, one of many crafted by the legendary Leopold Stowkowski, who was musical director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and as such was credited with having established the “Philadelphia Sound.”

Growing up in the suburbs of the City of Brotherly Love, I have a special fondness for the Philadelphia Orchestra, now so ably shepherded by the amazing Yannick Nezet-Seguin; in fact, I flew up to the city just last summer to attend two concerts at the impressive Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

Although the “Prelude in B Minor” was originally written for keyboard, some commentators have observed that one can still make a distinction between the right-hand and left-hand parts in the orchestral transcription. The violins substitute for the right hand while the rest of the orchestra plays the left-hand part.

The second piece of the evening will be Ludwig van Beethoven’s second symphony, composed in 1802. As audience members will read in Scott Weiss’s notes in the printed program, this particular work is generally regarded as a bridge composition, spanning Beethoven’s early period when he was still somewhat under the spell of 18th-century masters like Haydn and his middle period when he fully indulged in the unbridled self-expression of 19th-century Romanticism.

Most commentators label the work as “sunny.” In fact, Hector Berlioz once asserted that “everything in this symphony smiles.” However, it is impossible to ignore some moments of the “sturm and drang” or “storm and stress” representative of the composer’s later, more familiar symphonies. In these works, one finds the extremes of emotion that we come to expect in Beethoven’s mature creations.

What was the source of this tension? Some biographers point to the composer’s fear about and frustration over his growing deafness. Others say that Beethoven was highly attuned to the long shadow that Napoleon Bonaparte then cast over Europe.

Like most of the works that sprang from his fertile brain, the “Symphony No. 2 in D” provides a fascinating and ultimately pleasurable listening experience. The same is certainly true of the piece that concludes the concert, the fourth and final symphony of Johannes Brahms.

Composed in 1884-84, the monumental “Symphony No 4 in E Minor” provides a particularly fitting conclusion to this program since its fourth and final movement is often compared to the music of Bach, whose work launches the night’s entertainment. The concluding movement has been hailed for its skillful repetition of a theme from Bach’s “Cantata No. 150.”

Tickets are still available for this second Masterworks concert in the Aiken Symphony’s 2024-25 season. The matinee performance begins at 3 p.m. at USCA’s Etherredge Center on Nov. 3. For more information, visit aikensymphony.com.

A recipient of the Governor’s Award in the Humanities, Dr. Mack holds the rank of USC Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Of his nine books to date, four are focused on local cultural history: “Circling the Savannah,” “Hidden History of Aiken County,” “Hidden History of Augusta,” and “100 Things to Do in Augusta, Georgia Before You Die.”

Tom Mack, Ph.D.

USC Distinguished Professor Emeritus

Recipient, Governor’s Award in the Humanities

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