Along with memorable melodies and intricate harmonies, many great composers inserted musical drama into their compositions. Ludwig van Beethoven was no different, but it isn’t often that the Sturm und Drang (translated to storm and stress) transfers to audience members.
Pianist Emanuel Ax performed an all-Beethoven program in a solo recital on Nov. 2 at the Memorial Union’s Shannon Hall as prelude to 2020, the year of the great composer’s 250th birthday. This was Ax’s eighth Union Theater performance since he first appeared in 1977, and no doubt will be his most memorable for all the wrong reasons.
A bright audience buzz anticipated the Polish-born and Canadian-raised pianist’s arrival on stage, and Ax ambled to the concert grand amid appreciative applause. He wisely opened the evening with the Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor, WoO 59, better known as “Für Elise.” The very familiar 15 opening notes, both delicate and elegant, represented pure perfection in both the composition and performance.
From the short introduction, Ax launched seamlessly into the Piano Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2. Shortly thereafter, the trouble began.
Throughout the first two movements there were audible voices somewhere in the theater, punctuated by the staccato of a walkie-talkie. Heads in the front craned toward the balcony, the disturbance’s evident source. After concluding the sonata’s second movement, “Largo appassionato,” Ax said something to an usher and walked off stage.
During intermission, sources confirmed that an elderly man collapsed at the head of the balcony stairs and EMTs rushed in to apply CPR before taking him to the hospital. The victim was conscious and talking on the way out, sources said, leaving us to assume that he would survive the incident.
“I am sure the gentleman will be fine,” said Ax, returning to the stage after four minutes, “and I wish him well.”
From that point, the evening’s remaining drama was found only in Beethoven’s music. Ax finished the second sonata, then made a programming change to elevate the sprightly 5 Variations on “Rule Britannia” to the program’s front half. “I don’t think Beethoven knew about Brexit,” he quipped.
The Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1 closed the first half with the pianist hunched comfortably over the keyboard, his feather-light touch an expression of his supreme confidence in both the music and his mastery of it.
Six Variations on an original theme for piano in F major, Op. 34 opened the second half. It was followed by the much more dramatic Piano Sonata No. 3 in C Major, Op. 2, No. 3, a clear indication that Beethoven was beginning his migration from strict Classical structure to help usher in the Romantic period.
Ax’s note-perfect performance brought reinvigorated energy to the evening and the audience, which responded with thundering applause and a standing ovation. Ax reciprocated with a brief unidentified encore number, the apparent joy in his smile compensating for the near-tragedy that opened the evening.
