Beethoven on the Bluff Returns with ‘The Late Years’

The Mary Pappert School of Music’s popular Beethoven on the Bluff returns to campus with Season Two: The Late Years, which will focus on the works of renowned composer Ludwig van Beethoven from the last decade of his life.

The Late Years kicks off this Sunday, Sept. 7, at 3 p.m. with Concert V: Ode to Joy. The concert will feature Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, one of the best-known and beloved works in classical music.

“The melody has become an inescapable part of our culture,” said David Allen Wehr, artistic director of the Beethoven on the Bluff series. “It is used as a hymn in many Protestant churches, in movies such as A Clockwork Orange, as the anthem of the European Union, in commercial advertising and as a New Year’s Eve tradition in Japan.”

Wehr, who is the Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair in the music school, will collaborate with his longtime piano partner, Cynthia Raim, to showcase an extremely rare, complete performance of Franz Liszt’s two-piano transcription of Beethoven’s work at the concert.

Other performers at the Ode to Joy concert will include:

  • Sari Gruber, soprano and adjunct professor of voice
  • Natasha Snitkovsky, adjunct professor of piano
  • Benjamin Binder, pianist and associate professor of music
  • Ron Samuels, adjunct professor of clarinet
  • Scott Bell, adjunct professor of oboe
  • Philip Pandolfi, associate professor of bassoon
  • Zachary Smith, adjunct professor of horn.

Upcoming performances in the Beethoven on the Bluff series will include:

  • Concert VI: Archduke Trio/Diabelli Variations on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.
  • Concert VII: Violin/Cello III on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015, at 3 p.m.
  • Concert VIII: Violin/Cello IV on Monday, Feb. 23, 2015, at 7:30 p.m.

Featured series performers will include School of Music faculty, members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and internationally renowned guest artists. Season Two: The Late Years will also feature The Duquesne Piano Trio—a group composed of music faculty members Wehr, Charles Stegeman, professor and chair of strings, and Adam Liu, adjunct professor of cello.

Beethoven on the Bluff concerts will be held in the music school’s PNC Recital Hall with a suggested donation of $10 for admission. For more information, call 412.396.6083 or visit www.duq.edu/beethoven.