ODE TO JOY Comes to Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Next Month

2024 marks 200 years since Beethoven premiered his Ninth Symphony with its mighty ‘Ode to Joy’ choral finale in Vienna, sending shockwaves through the artistic heart of Europe and opening the door to a new visionary musical era. A groundbreaking achievement which revolutionised the symphony format with the mind-blowing inclusion of human voices, ‘Ode to Joy’ also gained instant acclaim as a radical call for equality, freedom and universal brotherhood.

Over the years, Beethoven’s inspired setting of Friedrich Schiller's poem has been played or performed at many of the world’s most emblematic events, and since 1985 has been the official anthem of the European Union. Joyous and optimistic, symbolic of humanity’s desire for unity and world peace, it remains one of the most popular choral works of all time, further popularised in soundtracks for numerous iconic films and TV commercials.

In this concert, honouring the 200th anniversary of the Ninth Symphony’s premiere, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Artistic Director, Brett Weymark has grasped the opportunity to shine a light on another brilliant composer whose legacy also changed the course of history; pairing Beethoven’s masterpiece with that of Dame Ethel Smyth.

“A feisty, and sometimes radical, activist for equality” (Lucas Reilly, Sound & Music, 2016), whether in the male-dominated world of classical music or in the voting booth,Smyth was one of Britain’s most influential 19th and 20th century musical voices.

She was also a badge-wearing suffragette who went to prison for her beliefs; using the two months of her interment to compose her famous anthem, The March of the Women, and conduct her fellow Holloway prison inmates in spirit raising performances, reportedly extending her toothbrush through the bars of her cell as a makeshift baton.

A rebellious young woman who defied her father and societal norms to pursue a career in music, Smyth went on to become one of England's foremost Victorian composers, the first woman composer to have an opera (her famous Der Wald) performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera – the opening night performance becoming the Met’s highest grossing production all year, and the first to be honoured with a Damehood.

By the time of her death in 1944 at age 86, she had written six operas, countless orchestral works, a concerto, and ten books, and enabled and inspired generations of women to “turn their minds to big and different jobs, not just to go on hugging the shore, afraid to put out to sea.” (Smyth, 1902). In today’s terms, she was a hard-hitting, glass-ceiling breaking legend.

A highlight of Smyth’s repertoire is her grand Mass in D, which premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in 1893, and was instantly hailed a masterpiece. The work prompted criticGeorge Bernard Shaw to remark that Smyth "cured me forever of the old delusion that women could not do man’s work in art and all other things”, adding that “her magnificent Mass would stand up in the biggest company!”

Despite his endorsement, Smyth’s work was a casualty of the times and sadly slid into relative obscurity for more than a century. In presenting it 130 years later – alongside Beethoven, on the iconic Sydney Opera House Concert Hall stage, Weymark intends to finally prove Shaw right; bringing together works by two impressively defiant trailblazers who, each in their own way, pursued grand visions and broke new ground with music that speaks powerfully of struggle and triumph.

The program also includes Smyth’s rousing The March of the Women, with its bold words of hope, ‘Shout, shout, Up with your song. Nought can ye win but by faith and daring’, in recognition of all those who have had to fight to be heard, and the many who are still striving.

Ode to Joy – Beethoven & Smyth is presented for one inspirational concert only at Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, 2pm Saturday 26 October 2024. Performed by one of Sydney Philharmonia’s biggest Choirs, the 400-strong Festival Chorus, with special guest soloists, Bronwyn Douglass, Helen Sherman, Bradley Daley and Michael Honeyman, this is sure to be one of the most talked about choral music events of the year. Presented in collaboration with the acclaimed Sydney Youth Orchestra, and conducted by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Associate Music Director, the inimitable Elizabeth Scott.

 

Book now at sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/concerts/2024season/odetojoy/

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