Listening for Beethoven
Ben Kim, piano*
Willamette Master Chorus, Paul Klemme, director^
September 27th, 2025 - 7:30pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center - Pre-Concert talk at 6:45 with Maestro Adam Flatt at 6:45pm.
September 28th, 2025 - 2:00pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center.
Gabriela Lena Frank, Elegía Andina
Jake Runestad, A Silence Haunts Me*^
Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 “Emperor”*
Ludwig van Beethoven, Choral Fantasy in C minor, for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Op. 80*^
We are excited to start the season off with a powerful tribute to one of the greatest composers of all time.
The concert begins with Elegía Andina, by Gabriela Lena Frank. She grew up with neurosensory high-moderate/near-profound hearing loss. Regardless of this challenge, Frank has become an incredible force in the world of music. This piece is dedicated to her older brother Marcos and explores what it means to be from different ethnical persuasions through traditional Peruvian elements.
Next we move on to Jake Runestad's moving exploration of Beethoven's deafness. Pianist Ben Kim and the Willamette Master Chorus led by Dr. Paul Klemme, join the Newport Symphony for this transformative music is set to a poem by the composer's friend, Todd Boss. This text explores Beethoven's mindset at his growing deafness while using some of the maestro's own musical ideas. According to Dr. Jonathan Talberg:
"Runestad has done what he does best—written a score where the poetry creates the form, where the text drives the rhythm, where the melody supports the emotional content, and where the natural sounding vocal lines, arresting harmony, and idiomatic accompaniment — in this case, piano in honor of Beethoven — come together to offer the audience an original, engaging, thoughtful, and passionate work of choral art."
Our friends in the chorus take a well earned break as Ben Kim and the NSO put Beethoven front and center with his aptly titled "Emperor" concerto. This is without question a masterwork although it has a sad asterisk alongside the grand title. Piano Concerto No. 5 was the first of Beethoven's concertos that he did not premiere himself, this because his hear was deteriorating significantly. Nonetheless, he has given us a remarkable work that has changed the landscape of all the concertos that follow.
Tonight's concert closes with the great Choral Fantasy in C minor. We welcome the Willamette Master Chorus back to the stage with Ben Kim, Maestro Adam Flatt, and the great Newport Symphony Orchestra. On the night of December 22, 1808, Beethoven was giving the Viennese premiere of Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 6, his Fourth Piano Concerto, with him as the soloist, and he decided he needed a grand finale, of sorts, to bring this FOUR HOUR concert to a close. The result, this Choral Fantasy. The musicologist William Runyan writes, "Beethoven may have ground out the Choral Fantasy in haste at the last minute, to serve the dubious function as a concert-ending flag waiver, but the audience that night got much more than it expected."
We think you'll agree! This is a great way to start the 2025-2026 NSO season!
