The Columbus Symphony and Chorus to team up for Beethoven's Symphony No. 9

Are performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 cursed in Columbus?

The German composer’s 1824 masterpiece is best-known for its magisterial “Ode to Joy” choral section, but in recent years, the Columbus Symphony has faced some, well, unusual challenges in presenting the work.

During Music Director Rossen Milanov’s tenure leading the symphony, planned outdoor performances of Symphony No. 9 at Picnic With the Pops have been plagued by bad weather.

“The first time it was totally rained out,” said Columbus Symphony Chorus Director Ronald J. Jenkins. “The second time it was raining, but we were all under cover.” (A few dozen audience members stayed, he said.)

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Then, a concert slated for April 2020 inside the Ohio Theatre was canceled due to the pandemic. It all amounts to a recent run of bad luck for “Symphony No. 9,” a work that the symphony and chorus has performed without incident for decades.

“Maybe some 19th-century enemy of Beethoven is doing this curse,” said Jenkins, who notes that the chorus did successfully perform the symphony with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, also led by Milanov, in 2017.

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Undaunted, the symphony and chorus will again attempt to tackle Symphony No. 9 next weekend. On Friday and Saturday in the Ohio Theatre, the work will be performed for the symphony’s season finale. Four guest vocalists — soprano Meroe Khalia Adeeb, mezzo-soprano Quinn Middleman, tenor Dennis Shuman and bass-baritone Robert Kerr — will join the musicians and choral singers.

For his part, Milanov isn’t buying any supernatural explanation for the symphony’s recent — how to put it? — difficulties in performing the piece.

“I wouldn’t say ‘cursed,’” Milanov said. “It’s just a chain of unfortunate events.”

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In fact, next weekend’s concerts will be a cause for celebration for symphony-goers: The shows represent the first performance by the whole Columbus Symphony Chorus — currently numbering about 120 singers — since the December 2019 edition of “Holiday Pops.”

“These people are volunteers,” Jenkins said. “The way they are paid is the joy of getting to make music with other musicians.”

In the nearly 2½ years since that last full performance, Jenkins has kept chorus members as busy as possible, initially through virtual rehearsals and performances.

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“You have a hundred and some volunteers, and if you don’t make contact with them during the course of a year, you’re going to lose them to other activities,” Jenkins said. “I wanted the CSO administration to know, that if we didn’t keep them connected and energized and give them something interesting to do, we wouldn’t have them when I wanted them and when it was coming back.”

Then, last September, 60 singers were brought in for in-person rehearsals in a room outfitted with air-circulating machines. Requirements for those who participated included masking and distancing.

“Everyone who came back that fall had to prove with their vaccine card that they had been vaccinated, and they all agreed to that,” said Jenkins, who began preparing the chorus for performances with limited personnel.

For example, 25 singers performed in February for the symphony’s performance of “La Boheme,” and 36 female singers sang in March for Franz Liszt’s “Dante Symphony,” Jenkins said.

Columbus Symphony and Chorus together, again

Bit by bit, the symphony and chorus began making music together again.

“One of the big objectives of the season was to go back to normal,” Milanov said. “After all of the performances this year, I think as far as the symphony is concerned, we’re back to normal.”

Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9” will represent the culmination of the chorus’ comeback.

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“Beethoven pushes the voice to the extremes,” Jenkins said. “I mean, it’s crazy how high the parts are for everyone, sopranos especially. . . . The basses go way up to the top of their range, and the tenors also, and the altos.”

Mindful of not damaging the singers’ voices, the chorus director reports that the chorus has embraced the vocal challenges.

“They’re singing out now,” Jenkins said.

Indeed, few pieces are more joyous to sing — or hear.

“It’s one of those enduring works that miraculously fits in any situation: When we have conflicts to resolve (or) when we have reasons to also celebrate victory,” Milanov said. “It’s needed for us to find artistic works that bring us together.”

Although the performances are still a few days away, let’s call the “curse” lifted.

Said Jenkins: “I think . . . it won’t rain, because we’re inside the Ohio Theatre.”

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At a glance

The Columbus Symphony and Chorus will perform Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St. Tickets cost $31.33 to $92.23. For more information, visit www.columbussymphony.com.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Symphony and Chorus offer Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in finale