The Chattanooga Symphony & Opera will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 on Nov. 12 and 13 at the Tivoli Theatre. Guest Conductor Tobias Foskett will lead a program of Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is a rhythmic powerhouse, and the Brahms and Wagner add rich complexity to this magnificent performance.
In the fall of 1811 as Beethoven began working on his seventh symphony in earnest, he was truly at the peak of his career, not just in his reputation as greatest living composer—that would continue—but he had a few more public appearances as performer and conductor to make before his deafness became too profound. A great mystery in Beethoven's life is the “Immortal Beloved” he addressed in a letter, apparently written in 1812, found among his papers after he died. A budding love could indeed explain the unbridled exuberance that suffuses Symphony No. 7. For a listener with a romantic nature, that is enough.
In addition to the masterwork pieces of Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner on this program, Guest Conductor Foskett joins the CSO as a candidate in the two season search for a new CSO music director and conductor. Maestro Foskett studied piano and conducting at the Canberra School of Music (Australian National University) completing his Bachelor of Music in 1999. Maestro Foskett currently lives in Berlin and has worked as musical assistant to Simone Young with some of the most important opera houses and orchestras in Germany and Austria such as the Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin, the Frankfort Opera, the Hamburg and Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestras, the Philharmonie Essen and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducts regularly in Germany, Austria and Australia and made his U.S. debut in 2008 with the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera.
His engagements in 2009 and 2010 include appearances with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, the Chattanooga Sym¬phony Orchestra, the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Leipzig Opera, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, concerts in Australia as well as the children’s concert series of the Dresden Phil¬harmonic Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
Tickets are $12 and available to the first 100 callers. Children 12 and under are free. Student tickets are $10 with a valid student identification. For tickets or information, contact the CSO Customer Service Center at 267-8583, at 630 Chestnut St. or online at www.chattanoogasymphony.org.