Concert sets up heroic pairing

The Spokane Symphony Classics 5 Concert is titled “Heroes and Legends” for good reason.

Saturday and Sunday, the symphony will bring to life the stories of William Tell, the “hero” of Beethoven and the heroic life of a young pianist who transcended the tragedy of her homeland’s civil war to win international acclaim, perform for audiences throughout the world and, thankfully for us, in Spokane.

The guest artist is world-class pianist Martina Filjak. Raised during the ravaging strife of war during the 1980s in her native Croatia, Filjak went on to excel as a student and performer, eventually winning the coveted Cleveland International Piano Competition.

She admits that she is a risk-taker, as evidenced by her choice of Beethoven’s outrageously demanding Hammerklavier Sonata as one of her competition selections.

Mozart wrote 28 solo keyboard concertos – only two are in a minor key.

When asked what there was about this particular Mozart Concerto in D Minor that moved her to have it in her extensive repertoire, Filjak responded:

“Through the whole concerto we rarely encounter Mozart’s sweet playfulness; rather, it is a playfulness of the spirit, a meditation of thoughts and emotions that is both captivating and challenging.

“The real challenge in this music, for a performer, is to keep a sound and sophisticated balance between the depth of emotion and not getting seduced into an overly romantic way of expression, to pay attention to details and never lose the sense of the big line; finally, to feel fully the sadness and the emotion, yet never stop enjoying. Kind of like life itself, isn’t it?”

Resident conductor Morihiko Nakahara and the orchestra will open the concert will be Gioacchino Rossini’s Overture to William Tell, which proved to be the last of his 38 operas.

Themes from this work should be very familiar to listeners, such as the thunderstorm section and the English horn solo (both used in Warner Bros. cartoons and elsewhere). The finale of the overture was the theme for one of radio’s longest running shows – “The Lone Ranger.”

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” changed the way symphonies were composed. First of all there is the length. The first movement is longer than many complete symphonies by Haydn and Mozart combined.

Beethoven’s manipulation of thematic material is also revolutionary: astonishing key relationships, motivic structure based on limited musical cells, rhythmic shifts unheard before all work to challenge both orchestra and listener.

The emotional intensity of the “Funeral March for a Hero” is another new idea that greatly influenced Beethoven’s contemporaries and those who came in his wake.

The Scherzo, another invention of Beethoven, has a theme that is essentially a descending major scale.

It is in the finale of this monument of classical music that Beethoven would put all he could to create into an ending to end all endings.

Cast as a theme and variations all goes well until Beethoven changes musical elements such as length and harmony to create a brave new world of orchestral brilliance and grandeur.