Young Beethoven
Saturday, March 26, 2022 - 7:30pm

Proof of second vaccine required for anyone over the age of 12, along with government issued ID for those 19+.

SIDNEY JOINS WORLD-WIDE BEETHOVEN 250TH CELEBRATIONS

When The Mary Winspear Centre presents The Young Beethoven  on Saturday, March 26, 2022 at The Charlie White Theatre at 7.30 p.m. Sidney will be taking part in the world wide celebrations of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th  birthday.  

The actual anniversary was in November 2020, but along with other concert organizations around the world,  The Mary Winspear  delayed the party because of  the pandemic. “We are proud to be presenting this Beethoven celebration concert  now“ stated Theatre manager Philip Sutton. “This will be the only performance in the Victoria region” he added.  Meantime   tour organizer George Zukerman,  who  accompanies the Young Beethoven  as host-narrator.. made his own observation. “Better late than never”,  he said “Beethoven waited 250 years so another few months won’t bother him unduly!”

Now,  the Sidney audience will hear the touring company of the Young Beethoven  in a programme of rarely heard works, all written before the composer was thirty years of age. 

The all-star ensemble of Vancouver soloists will be headed by distinguished violinist, Nancy DiNovo, and will include Yuel Yawney, violin, Rebecca Ruthven, viola, Brian Mix, cello, Michael Vaughan, bass, Milan Milosevic, clarinet, Jesse Read, bassoon and three of Vancouver’s most celebrated horn virtuosi, Steve Denroche, Dawn Haylett and Andrew Clark.

The ensemble will also appear in eight other BC Communities, including White Rock, Coquitlam, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Parksville,, Sechelt,  Salt Spring, and Pender Island,  West  Vancouver and Kelowna performances were completed  last November.

Programme of the Young Beethoven  will be built around the famous Septet, Opus 20  which was composed between 1799  and 1800  and became immensely popular throughout Europe. Referring to the Septet, Beethoven wrote to his brother in 1802:  “I wish they would burn the piece.  Nobody is listening to anything else I have written since!” 

The Young Beethoven has been designed with mathematical precision.  The concert opens with one of Beethoven’s earliest works, a duet for clarinet and bassoon, written when the composer was only 19 years of age.  One by one the other players join in for a trio, a quartet, a quintet and a  sextet,  leading up to the Septet  which constitutes the entire second half of the programme.

The Young Beethoven  will feature a recently discovered  quintet for three horns, clarinet and bassoon listed as Werke ohne Opus208 [Work without opus number].  Also included on the programme will be the Sextet Opus 81b  for two horns and strings. The opus number is deceptive, reflecting its date of publication in 1810. The sextet was composed in 1795.

The concept for the Young Beethoven programme was created by Impresario and raconteur  George Zukerman  who will accompany the Young Beethoven  as host commentator. “I am particularly looking forward to presenting some of these works on tour,” he stated in a recent interview. “Not only are they seldom heard they also reflect a youthful cheerfulness that is often belied by the traditional image of Beethoven, tormented by the world around him.  This programme will present Beethoven without the scowl”