Cathartic journeys

Two classical music offerings meet us in the present day

Living through these times asks a lot of us. How do we stay clear-headed and awake? How do we not burn out and lose our hearts (or our minds)? Art, now more than ever, is one of the better answers to both those questions. 

Upcoming concerts by two of Tulsa’s most innovative music organizations bring opportunities to clarify our perceptions and reconnect to our humanity. They feature some of the most iconic works in the classical canon, but it’s what those works do, not what they are, that’s most compelling. 

On February 18, for one night only, the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus brings Georg Freidrich Handel’s rarely-heard “Solomon” to the Art Deco splendor of the Boston Avenue Methodist Church. The three-act oratorio requires a full baroque orchestra, organ and harpsichord, and a double chorus totaling 100 voices. Despite how challenging it is to present, TOC director Tim Sharp said he knew what he was doing when he chose to program it for this season. 

“In this piece Handel was paying homage to George II, the king he worked for,” Sharp said. “He was saying Solomon was a wise leader, powerful, loved the arts, protected the people. The person who went to this concert in 1748 knew exactly what Handel was up to. It was propaganda. He was sucking up. 

“But Solomon had another side,” Sharp explained. “He ended up going off the deep end, worshipped a whole bunch of gods, had 700 wives. I’d planned this concert not knowing how the election would go, but wow, did it become timely. We’ve got this president now and we’re all going bat crazy.” 

For John Largess of the Miró Quartet, the Beethoven string quartets are the epitome of that definition of art. Chamber Music Tulsa culminates its months-long Beethoven Festival with the Miró Quartet performing all 16 Beethoven string quartets during six concerts over ten days (Feb. 17-26)—an extraordinary feat of emotional, physical, and technical range and stamina.

“Part of why these works are so great,” Largess said, “is that Beethoven was one of the first composers to say, ‘art can be universal but I can also tell my story. I’m going to tell it to you because I know you’ll understand. It can still be great art, but this is what the music sounds like when, for instance, I don’t feel so great.’ He says, ‘I don’t have to be only noble, or only beautiful, or only tragic in a pleasant acceptable way.’”

The Miró Quartet will play the quartets in compositional order, unfolding in a single flow the story of Beethoven’s life, with all its successes and mistakes and setbacks, beginning when he was 30 years old and concluding when he was two months away from death, at age 56. 

It’s a cathartic journey. 

“Sometimes he’s more than happy,” Largess said. “He’s silly, he’s crazy, he’s manic. Sometimes he’s more than sad: he’s depressed, he’s hopeless, he’s tragic. In the music he deals with these real emotions and processes them—sometimes coming to resolution, sometimes not—kind of like our real lives actually are. And he says it in a way that anyone can understand if they listen to it with the perspective of their own life.”

Attending all six performances to hear the entire cycle means an investment from audience and performers alike. 

“You’ll be changed,” Largess emphasized. “If you go despite the resistance you will have this totality of experience that you probably won’t have the chance to have again, without a huge investment of time money and energy on your part, and it won’t be your community’s version of it either.” 

Largess recalled the words of a woman who attended a performance of the quartets last summer. She spoke about a personal struggle and said she’d spent most of the performance in tears. 

“Thank you for giving me that gift to just really feel what I’m feeling and to know that Beethoven says it’s okay,” she told the Miró Quartet, “that I’m not alone in going through this, that I’m alive. I’m alive and I’m feeling.”

“That’s what this music is for,” Largess said. “It’s for you. We’re doing it for you. For who you are, now.” 

“Solomon”
Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m., Boston Avenue United Methodist Church.
Tickets at tulsachorus.com

Miró Quartet | Beethoven Winter Festival
Feb. 17-26, times vary, Tulsa PAC.
Tickets at chambermusictulsa.org

For more from Alicia, read her article on handcrafted jewelry makers Seth and Rachel Dazey of Dillon Rose.