The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Project began with a disclaimer.
Over the course of the project, the orchestra is to perform nearly all Beethoven’s symphonies plus the “Triple Concerto” and the choral “Missa Solemnis.” (The choral ninth symphony will be performed in the fall.) The ASO started this undertaking Thursday at Symphony Hall with symphonies 1 and 3. But instead of the gentle opening cadential chords of the composer’s first symphony, a video message flashed on a screen above the orchestra.
Atlanta’s winter weather led to compressed rehearsal time, explained music director Nathalie Stutzmann from a frigid Piedmont Park. Canceling the performance was considered, but the musicians were deemed ready. On with the show.
That message may have been innocuous. Maybe the packed-in crowd didn’t give the commentary more than a passing thought. It felt, though, like an introduction to find fault with what turned out to be a performance filled with dazzling moments of music making. The concert highlighted the musicianship of individual sections of the orchestra — a sublime horn chorale here, a tight woodwind passage there — but also showcased how the orchestra has developed a fulfilling and cohesive sound under the delicate but firm control of a conductor who is now fully at home with the ASO.
In both the first symphony and, after intermission, the third, subtitled “Eroica,” Stutzmann emphasized dynamic shifts to heighten the music’s drama. Pianissimo passages brought out depth and tension, just as thundering fortes cultivated passion. She also leaned into articulations. With her body language, Stutzmann mimed full-bodied percussive attacks by forcefully stabbing the air downward with her baton. The orchestra responded with vigor.
On Thursday, Stutzmann’s direction always paid service to the music; she didn’t ask the musicians for anything flashy, or out of character, just to make a musical splash. The result? Beethoven symphonies that had an element of surprise.
Beethoven finished the works in 1800 and 1803, so there is nothing “new” about them. These are well-worn pieces embedded in the musical consciousness, and it’s not a stretch to say that longtime ASO listeners had heard the symphonies many times before — both from other music directors and Stutzmann herself. (She made her debut as the ASO’s new music director in 2022 with Beethoven’s ninth symphony, and she conducted an ASO performance of symphony 6 in 2023.) These tunes — and the symphonies did, at times, become hummable (and maybe even danceable) songs — had intrigue. Instead of a monolithic piece of music, the ASO gave the compositions room to reveal multiple layers, the added richness at their core.
This significant Beethoven undertaking, the ASO explained in program notes, was to occur in 2020, Beethoven’s 250th anniversary; that original plan would have seen the ASO and ASO chorus, under former music director Robert Spano, end the project in New York’s Carnegie Hall with “Missa Solemnis.” Five years and a pandemic later, the orchestra has been remade under a new music director.
After a repeat performance of Thursday’s concert this weekend, Stutzmann leads the orchestra next week in symphonies 2 and 5. In fact, she’s committed to Beethoven for nearly all of her seven appearances with the ASO through the end of the current season. We’ll never know what could have been in that 2020 season, but there’s reason to be excited for what is to come.
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