One Found Sound Takes on Beethoven’s “Eroica”

Last night in the Swedish American Hall, One Found Sound (OFS), which performs without a conductor, took their repertoire “to the next level” with a program entitled Waveform. The second half of the program was devoted entirely to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 55 (third) symphony in E-flat major, usually known by the name “Eroica.” The composer was originally inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte’s acts of liberation, and had planned to name the symphony in his honor. However, when the liberator devolved into a tyrant, Beethoven’s struck out Napoleon’s name, replacing it with that single word “Eroica.”

Some may have wondered if OFS was too small an ensemble to perform this work of extended proportions in instrumentation, as well as duration. While it is true that the string section was smaller than the one that is usually encountered in Davies Symphony Hall, it would be fair to say that it was on a scale similar to the size of the ensemble Beethoven himself had conducted. While there may have been more brass and winds than usual, these were also instruments that were part of orchestras in the early nineteenth century, even if their roles in the performances tended to be modest. As far as the strings were concerned, there were enough of them to give due credit to the music in a space that perfectly suited the scale of the ensemble.

Those whose listening activities are dominated by recorded sources to the detriment of attending performances do not know what they are missing. In last night’s performance there were so many gestures of subtle interplay among the string section, winds, and brass that made the event totally superior to an “experience through a loudspeaker,” even for a listener hooked on score-following! Ensemble music has been spatial for as long as there have been ensembles, and the very layout of an orchestra reflects a commitment to sonorous interplay captured by all those marks on paper. As the old joke goes, the attentive listener is consistently clued in as to who is doing what and to whom. As a result, however many past experiences of recordings a listener has encountered, being “in the presence of performance” is always a source of fresh observations and insights.

Thus, while this is Beethoven’s second-longest symphony (shorter only than the “Choral”), there is never a dull movement over the course of its extended duration (which, last night, included OFS taking all the repeats)!

As might be expected, the impact of Beethoven towered above the two shorter compositions on the first half of the program. The program began with Ruth Gipps’ Opus 53, “Seascape,” composed in the middle of the last century. One could appreciate her approach to evocative qualities, but the listening experience was not a particularly enduring one.

This was followed by the world premiere of Sam Wu’s “Hydrosphere,” which had received last year’s Emerging Composer Award from OFS. The work was clearly a reflection on current “environmental consciousness;” but I must confess that I was left in the dark when it came to figuring out what the composer had intended to reflect. The fact is that, where premieres are concerned, “first contact” experiences do not often register very well; and the music is better served by opportunities for further listening.