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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT OCTOBER 26, 2023
YOUROBSERVER.COM
Image courtesy of Gary Gold
IN SEARCH OF
‘EROICA’ MONICA ROMAN GAGNIER
IF YOU GO
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
When: Nov. 3-5 Where: Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail Tickets: $39-$105 Info: SarasotaOrchestra.org
C
onductor David Alan Miller has one foot in Sara-
sota and the other in Albany, New York, but his mind is occupied by the 19th century as he prepares to lead the Sarasota Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 next month.
Better known as “Eroica,” the 1802 work is twice as long as any of Beethoven’s earlier compositions. What’s more, it’s considered to be the demarcation between the classical and romantic eras of music. With her keen appreciation of “Eras,” Taylor Swift would surely understand. Miller, who has been the artistic director of the Albany Symphony Orchestra for 32 years, was in Sara-
Monica Roman Gagnier
Hugo Bliss will play the horn in the Sarasota Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s “Eroica.”
sota earlier this month to conduct its “New York, New York” program. The concerts, which ran the gamut of Big Apple artists from George Gershwin to Billy Joel, were a rous-
ing tribute to the place where “if you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere.” Miller may have been celebrating New York, but he had nothing but praise for Florida’s Cultural Coast at the concert. “I’m fortunate to be working in Sarasota,” Miller says. “The orchestra’s brilliant musicians play at the highest international level.” “Eroica” is a monumental work, and it’s fitting that it will take place at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, which seats 1,700. It is part of the Masterworks series in the Sarasota Orchestra’s 75th anniversary season, which will be officially celebrated with a concert and gala on Feb. 15, 2024. In addition to “Eroica,” Miller will conduct Overture to Die Fledermaus by J. Strauss Jr. and Michael Torke’s concerto for violin and orchestra “Sky” during the concerts Nov. 3-5. Originally conceived as a tribute
David Alan Miller conducts the Sarasota Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s masterpiece.
to Napoleon, Beethoven’s “Eroica” honors the heroic ideal. After the French revolutionary crowned himself emperor, mimicking the royalty he helped to dethrone, Beethoven changed his mind and dedicated his symphony to the hero in general, not an individual. To prepare for the upcoming concert, Miller has been researching the differences between the design and sounds of instruments during Beethoven’s time and the present. Miller calls himself an “originalist” when it comes to classical music, a term usually associated with discussions of the U.S. Constitution. To make “Eroica” sound more like the way it did when it was first performed, Miller is having percussionists use the wooden drumsticks that were common in the early 1800s instead of the “fluffier” models employed today. That tweak will give a more authentic — and martial — sound to the symphony, Miller explained during a recent telephone interview from his home in Albany. For better or worse, heroes have historically achieved their stature through military means. This originalist performance of “Eroica” will reflect that. SEE MILLER, PAGE 2
“My objective is to see how we can evoke or elicit the original sound without changing instruments. We can lessen the bow stroke; we can make woodwind instruments more distinct.” — David Alan Miller