Pittsburgh Symphony celebrates Beethoven’s birthday with a series of concerts in the region
Edward DeArmitt
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is celebrating Beethoven’s birthday with a series of concerts, some free, throughout the Pittsburgh area.
Honeck
By Brad Hundt
Staff writer
bhundt@observer-reporter.com
A 252nd birthday is not quite the milestone that a 250th birthday is, but the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) believes it’s still worth celebrating, particularly when the birthday boy is Ludwig van Beethoven.
To mark the occasion, the PSO is undertaking an ambitious series of concerts throughout the region celebrating Beethoven’s repertoire while, at the same time, bringing the orchestra to areas it wouldn’t typically be found and placing it in front of audiences that might not have been inclined previously to make the journey to Heinz Hall.
This week, the PSO has turned up at the Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh International Airport and the New Hazlett Theater on Pittsburgh’s Northside as part of a five-day “tour” where it is playing Beethoven’s nine symphonies. All the concerts have been free. On Friday, the PSO is due to be at the Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead, where it will play Beethoven’s eighth and third symphonies, the latter being the “Eroica” symphony. On Saturday, the PSO will be returning to its home at Heinz Hall, where it will tackle Beethoven’s ninth symphony with the assistance of the Mendelsson Choir of Pittsburgh. This is the sole concert where there is an admission charge.
“We had all the plans in in place, the venues and the sequence and of course COVID intervened, which of course lasted longer than anybody could anticipate,” said Mary Persin, vice president for artistic planning for the PSO.
She continued, “We were determined to bring this idea to life. I think that’s what’s so magical about the project – these works were revolutionary in their day, they were forward-looking, they were inventive, they had universal messages.”
Manfred Honeck, music director of the PSO, explained, “Music is the best language and Beethoven is one of its greatest heroes. Beethoven was a visionary who set the standard for leading figures of classical music and dominated the evolution of how humans listen to and understand the power of music today.
The celebration won’t end with the performance of the Ninth Symphony this weekend, however.
A 16-concert series, “Beethoven In Your Neighborhood: The Library Project,” starts next Wednesday at MuseumLab on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Also originally scheduled in 2020 but called off because of the pandemic, it was designed to celebrate both Beethoven and the 125th anniversaries of the PSO and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The series will have members of the PSO performing all 16 of Beethoven’s string quartets at 16 different libraries. It will go through Wednesday, June 29, and include libraries in McKeesport, Oakmont, the Hill District, Homestead, Homewood and other locations.
“It’s meeting people in these communities and in these spaces,” Persin said. “Inviting people in and meeting them where they are.”
For information go online to www.pittsburghsymphony.org or call 412-392-4900.