# An interesting retirement hobby



## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Our chorus will be performing Beethoven Sym. No. 9 with the orchestra is a couple weeks. This past week our choral director was contacted by a gentleman who has performed this work with different orchestras all over the country. He submitted an audition CD and letters of reference, and offered to make a donation to the chorus. Our director said, 'Sure!' We are all looking forward to meeting, rehearsing, and performing with this guy. What a neat thing to do!

I found this article from 2006 about the gentleman, who estimated (at that time) he had sung the work thousands of times both in rehearsals and performances at venues ranging from high school gyms to Carnegie Hall.

"Singing at Carnegie Hall is great but I'd just as soon do it in a high school gym," he says, smiling. "The music is the same, and it's glorious."

He uses a Web site that lists orchestras and their schedules, checks to see who is doing the Ninth, and then calls or sends a letter, asking if he can join the chorus.

The retired accountant says, "There's nothing I'd rather do."


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Jealousy*

I am jealous. I have only performed it twice. I still think it is the most amazing piece of music I have ever performed.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Here's the press article about our upcoming concert. I've copied it instead of linking it because its "restricted to subscribers..."

DPO to present a Beethoven masterpiece
‘Symphony No. 9’ serves as Classical Series finale.
BY RUSSELL FLORENCE JR

The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra salutes Ludwig van Beethoven’s iconic 1824 masterpiece “Symphony No. 9” on Friday and Saturday at the Schuster Center as the season finale of its Classical Series.

“Symphony No. 9,” Beethoven’s final opus, is a majestic marvel created when the composer was nearly completely deaf. Performed in four movements, the composition was the first symphonic work to incorporate voices, ultimately deeming it a choral symphony. The final movement features the timeless “Ode To Joy,” inspired by Freidrich Schiller’s 1785 poem of the same name.

“Greatness (is) inherent in the piece,” said DPO music director Neal Gittleman. “The bold conception, the revealing of the struggle-to-triumph theme of the ‘Fifth Symphony’ now recast as struggle-to-joy, the incredible, solemn, frightening power of the first movement, the turn-it-up-to-11 energy of the second movement, the sublime beauty of the third movement, and the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to the finale. The ‘Ninth’ is what you make of it. Fundamentally, it is what it is, which is what Beethoven wrote on the page. And that is amazing enough just by itself without anybody adding anything to it. On one level, it is simply a composer’s solution to the age-old problem, ‘How do I write a symphony in the key of D minor?’ And it’s an incredibly brilliant solution to the problem. But on another level, it is something else entirely, something that transcends the notes on the page and energizes just about everyone who’s lucky enough to hear it.”

“Symphony No. 9” features soprano Andrea Chenoweth, mezzo-soprano Brandi Samuel, tenor Jason Slayden and bass Nathan Stark. Also, joining the DPO orchestra chorus, under the direction of Hank Dahlman, will be Gary Grossman, an amateur singer and retired New York City accountant who has performed in over 60 presentations of the work from Iowa to Florida. Grossman became particularly passionate about the piece while a student at Brandeis University in the 1960s. He typically performs the work two or three times a year, providing a financial donation to the choruses he joins, including the DPO.

“Performing the ‘Ninth’ is basically my hobby,” said Grossman, whose first singing appearance was at Carnegie Hall in 1995. “I just love all four movements. I know the piece intimately. I get a real thrill out of singing it. The venue may change but the music never changes. The music gets me every time.”

In addition to Puerto Rican composer and Cornell University professor Roberto Sierra’s “A Joyous Overture,” the concert incorporates contemporary composer Michael Schelle’s action-fused “Swashbuckler!,” which reveals his fondness for Igor Stravinksy, Béla Bartók and Frank Zappa. After intermission the audience will be treated to ‘Symphony No. 9,” which marks the first time the DPO has performed the piece since 2009.

This time around, especially, I’m continually reminding myself, ‘What is the symphony about?,’” said Gittleman. “It’s about joy. And how you find your way from wherever you are to joy.”
**

Gittleman seemed pleased when he worked with our chorus last week. On Tuesday, we get to meet Gary Grossman, and on Wed-Thurs we rehearse with the orchestra and soloists. Our concerts are Friday and Saturday nights.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

There are 2 pieces by contemporary composers on the program.

Roberto Sierra _A Joyous Overture_
Originally created as a preface to a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. This bright and kinetic curtain-raise alludes to the Beethoven symphony through the sue of the first declamatory notes (a descending perfect fourth) and the first four notes of its final movement's _Ode to Joy_. It also generally shares the spirit and melodic contours of Glinka's exuberant _Russlan and Ludmilla Overture._

Michael Schelle _Swashbucker_
SWASHBUCKER was originally written on a dare from one of my graduate composition students--an outspoken fella who insisted I only appreciated (and wrote) avant garde / experimental / contemporary / modern new music. AS I had the Buffalo Philharmonic commission on my desk at the time--and as I was slightly concerned that maybe the student was right (!!)--I thought this just might be the perfect opportunity to prove the student wrong and to expand my catalogue with something different.
Quickly, the piece transcended the casual well-intentioned challenge and because a sincere, genuine and respected homage to the great swashbuckling film scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold , Max Steiner and Co., and the quintessential movie stars of the classic 1930s Hollywood swashbuckler blockbusters I so dearly loved. There's heroic music, action music lugubrious midnight seafaring music, even a tortured "love theme" in the middle of the action ...a tip of the hat to the great swashbuckling femme fatale, Olivia de Havilland.


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