NMPhil to highlight 'Early Beethoven' in Coffee Concert

Beethoven’s earliest treasures contain nuggets of his later genius.

The New Mexico Philharmonic will explore those gems with “Early Beethoven” in a Coffee Concert on Friday, May 3.

Guest conductor Na’Zir McFadden will lead the musicians through Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, his Piano Concerto No. 3 and his overture to “The Creatures of Prometheus” at the South Broadway Cultural Center. Olga Kern International Piano Competition second-prize winner Anthony Ratinov will helm the keys.

McFadden is the assistant conductor with the Detroit Symphony and also serves as master director of the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra. Beethoven is one of his “top three” favorite composers.

The composer’s early music reveals glimpses of what was to follow.

“We get a very clear idea of Beethoven as a young composer,” McFadden said. “Some of his techniques have never been done before. He’s not afraid to write a dissonant chord.”

In the symphony (written in 1801), the scherzo and the finale are filled with Beethovenian musical jokes, which shocked the sensibilities of many contemporary critics. The second movement is similar to the first movement of the Sixth, McFadden said. He begins developing the melody further.

“It’s one of the longest slow movements he ever composed,” McFadden said. “It’s very unusual to have a 12-minute movement. It’s completely unheard of at that time.”

Beethoven wrote his third piano concerto in 1800.

“For me, this is his masterwork (for piano) because it’s so closely related to Mozart’s 24th Piano Concerto,” McFadden said. “This is the clearest transition from the classical to the romantic era.”

The composer explored all the nuances of the instrument, he added.

“There is the traditional way to perform Beethoven,” McFadden continued. “But there is room to explore things that have never been done before.”

Beethoven composed music for the ballet “The Creatures of Prometheus” in 1801. It was the fruit of a collaboration between him and Salvatore Viganò, Vienna court ballet master and fellow artistic progressive.

The concert marks McFadden’s New Mexico Philharmonic debut.

“I grew up primarily in the Baptist church,” he said in a telephone interview from Detroit. “This is where my love of music started. Many of my family are church and jazz musicians.”

As a child, he visited an orchestral rehearsal. He was mesmerized by the music director.

“She was able to bring out so much emotion and passion,” McFadden said.

He knew he’d found his future profession. By the fifth grade, he was playing the clarinet.

“I wasn’t selected for the band,” he said. “I threw a temper tantrum.”

He stopped doing his classwork and his teacher asked him why.

He said, “My family are all musicians; I want to be a part of that.”

The teacher penned a letter to the band director. He was signed up within a week. By high school, McFadden was attending rehearsals wherever he could find them.

“I just wanted to be a part of this collaboration,” he said. I wanted to be part of a community.

He attributes his success to “really putting myself out there.”

He tells his students, “If there’s a door, knock to get in. If it doesn’t, kick it down (respectfully) and make your own path.”