How is a concert of all one composer different from one with a bunch of different composers? "No different," says Markand Thakar, music director for the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra.
His group is putting together an all-Beethoven concert for its Saturday, Nov. 16 concert, "Destination Germany." The concert will include Beethoven's "Coriolan Overture," Third Piano Concerto and the famous Fifth Symphony.
Thakar said music history or even a study of the composer plays very little role in how he prepares for the concert. Each piece is its own focus.
"It's not about laying out three pieces as artifacts," he said. "In fact, I think that very issue is where a lot of people in the orchestra business ... make a fatal error."
It's not that Thakar is disinterested in the music history or the intent of the composer, it's just not really the point.
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"They're not artifacts in and of themselves," he said of the pieces. "What they are is possibilities, and there are possibilities for a quality of an experience, which depends very much on how we actually play them."
That means putting sounds together in ways that move people, how each note stands in relation to another in physical reality in a concert hall, each forte a new realm of possibilities.
For that reason, he dismisses any concerns about making what a DSSO press release called "probably the best known piece of classical music in the repertoire" -- the Beethoven Fifth -- sound fresh. Each performance is its own moment in time.
"To me, I actually don't think that that's an issue," he said. "... We are going to hear it that night for the first time."
Helping the audience partner in that experience is simple, Thakar said. "We turn out the lights, and we promote an atmosphere that it all gets quiet ... and we allow people to settle into a situation where the setting invites them to open themsevles to the sound. There's no popcorn, there's no laser show, there's no movie. It's them and the sounds."
Some of the sounds in the concert will come from a unique talent in classical music -- pianist Joyce Yang performing the piano concerto. Now 20, Yang has been making waves since winning several national competitions in Korea before the age of 10. At 10, she entered the Korean National Conservatory and had made concerto and recital appearances in Seoul and Taejon.
Yang soon traveled to the United States and began studies at the Juilliard School, where she started winning contests her first year. In 1999, she was invited to perform at a benefit concert with the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Already, the Washington Post has lauded her tone, technique and sensitivity, which it said "would make her the envy of any pianist, regardless of age."
Thakar concurs that age doesn't really enter into the picture. He did a concert with Yang a couple of years ago in Long Island, N.Y., and says he's excited to work with her again.
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"She's an absolutely world-class musician, in addition to being a fabulous pianist," he said, noting her combination of technical mastery and artistry.
"She knows how to put tones together that grab you and take you someplace very special."
Tickets to the concert may be purchased through the orchestra's Web site, http://www.dsso.com , or by phone at 733-7579. The concert begins at 8 p.m.
