At rehearsal with the Phoenix Symphony Chorus on Wednesday night this week, everyone knew the moment was coming.
The 115-member strong choir was practicing with the Phoenix Symphony for its weekend run of performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. With concerts Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Symphony Hall, the weekend will draw the season to a close for the Chorus.
While the piece is regarded historically as the first time a major composer scored vocal parts for a symphony, it’s that fourth movement that helped lift “Symphony No. 9” to almost mythical stature among all pieces of music.
Phoenix Symphony artistic partner and conductor of this weekend's performances Tito Muñoz on Wednesday had the orchestra stop playing and listen to the choir sing the famous movement unaccompanied.
“He said that’s what it's all about. Because they’ve got the spirit of this,” said Tom Bookhout, the Phoenix Symphony Chorus’ chorus master. “And it’s spine tingling to hear that moment.”
Audiences will get that chance at three shows this weekend in downtown Phoenix. There are 7:30 p.m. performances Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26, plus a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, April 27.
The shows come almost 201 years to the day Beethoven’s Ninth was first performed in Vienna on May 7, 1824. Beethoven died three years later.
The Chorus has had only a couple weeks to rehearse, Bookhout says, and there are a few singers in the group who have never performed the famed work. He calls it “a rite of passage” for choir members to sing the piece for a first time.
Beethoven was a pioneer in the shift at the time to the new Romantic era of the 19th century. He stretched the form to not only include a choir singing in tandem with an orchestra, but to usher in a new type of musical expression that, ultimately, was Beethoven’s final symphony.
“You used your music to say something to people,” Bookhout said of this piece’s influence. “It wasn’t just dinner music or music to hear in the evening, like we listen to a radio nowadays. The music was supposed to be listened to. It had a message, and Beethoven is credited with kind of launching that.”
The fourth movement, best known as “Ode to Joy,” features four vocal soloists (Felicia Moore, soprano; Briana Elyse Hunter, mezzo soprano; Miles Mykkanen, tenor; and Norman Garrett, baritone) and a chorus.
“It’s as if each of the preceding movements are trying to find the music that will bring brotherhood to humanity,” Bookhout said.
Bookhout is also a music teacher, leading students at Glendale Preparatory Academy-Great Hearts, at 23276 N. 83rd Ave., in Peoria.
The Phoenix Symphony Chorus was founded in 2001 as the resident performing partner of Arizona’s only full-time orchestra. The all-volunteer Chorus rehearses weekly throughout the performance season, and members collectively donate more than 12,000 hours of service to music and The Phoenix Symphony each year.
“There’s something special about a group of volunteers,” Bookhout said. “They’re there only because they love doing it.”
Click here for tickets to this weekend’s performances.
Steve Stockmar
News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment
YourValley.net
sstockmar@iniusa.org
Meet Steve
Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.
Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.
Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.
Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.
Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.
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