Manze and Music Create ‘The Eroica Effect’
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“You just don’t do better than the Eroica Symphony,” Manze said. “This is the masterpiece of all masterpieces.”
During the concert, titled The Eroica Effect, Manze will use words and music to unlock secrets and untangle myths of what Beethoven himself considered his greatest symphony. After intermission, the audience will hear the complete masterpiece with fresh ears and a genuine appreciation for the genius behind it.
“You’re going to get to know what an orchestra is, what a symphony is and who Beethoven was – one of the great geniuses of Western music,” Manze said. “I want to really recreate the excitement that the audience had hearing Eroica for the first time in Beethoven’s Vienna of 1805. On first hearing it, Haydn, the great symphony composer at the time, said, ‘Music will never be the same again.’ ”
Manze will look at the piece’s historical context and examine the question why, if Eroica was originally a tribute to Napoleon Bonaparte, did Beethoven tear Bonaparte’s name off the title page and instead name it Eroica?
“Where does this piece come from? What sort of music was Beethoven listening to that would give him the idea to write such a powerful, large-scale statement?” Manze said. “We are not just hearing a piece of music in this concert. We are getting to know it intimately so it becomes ours.”
Due to the nature of this program, there will not be Artist Insights. During the first part of the concert, the Helsingborg Symphony, one of Scandinavia’s most innovative orchestras, will play excerpts of Beethoven’s earlier pieces which hint at his greatness to come, music which inspired Beethoven and music Beethoven completed after Eroica.
Manze, modern superstar of the baroque violin, studied classics at Cambridge University and music at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Royal Academy in The Hague. He was associate director of the Academy of Ancient Music, 1996-2003, and artistic director of the English Concert, 2003-2006. He has been principal conductor of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra since 2006 and is also artist-in-residence at the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. Carlsen Center audiences know Manze for his energy and insight into music from previous appearances as conductor with the English Concert in 2006 and the Academy of Ancient Music in 2002 and as solo violinist with the Academy of Ancient Music in 1997.
The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1912 and is known for its performances of classical- and romantic-period music.
The Eroica Effect generates passion and enthusiasm in Manze. He tells a poignant story of a man who he invited to a concert. The man said, “Do you think they’ll let me come?”
“It was as if he thought you needed to know something to attend a concert. You don’t need to know a thing,” Manze said. “Just come and enjoy.”
Tickets for The Eroica Effect are $30 and $40, available by calling the Carlsen Center box office at 913-469-4445 or online at www.jccc.edu/CarlsenCenter.
