Bethel College performs in WSO's Beethoven Blowout

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April 13, 2012|By Rebecca White | KWCH 12 Eyewitness News

(WICHITA, Kan.) — The Wichita Symphony Orchestra performs some of Beethoven’s best known pieces this weekend. Students from Bethel College will join the symphony to sing Beethoven’s Mass in C Major.

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Andrew Voth, a senior at Bethel College, says this is a chance to sing on one of the biggest stages in Wichita with a professional symphony.

“It’s just this really interesting feeling of being swept up in this giant wash of sound that’s really powerful and exhilarating and fantastic to sing with,” says Voth.

Beethoven was already going deaf by the time this piece was composed and with the great composer conducting, rehearsals were a disaster.

Additionally, Beethoven met some resistance as he began to challenge the conventional rules of classical music with this Mass, says Wichita Symphony Conductor, Daniel Hege.

“It certainly has its storming the heavens moments, but it has this other quiet side,” says Hege. “I think Beethoven wanted to identify with that deeper spiritual side, and avoid some of the excesses that he saw going into other masses.”

Taylor Mccabe – Juhnke, a soprano from Bethel, says the music is complex.

“You have to make sure you have a tall round beautiful sound and to sort of float up above the other parts is really difficult,” says Mccabe – Juhnke.

The music also makes emotional demands for the performers, according to Bethel student Julia Huxman.

“I really appreciate the ebb and flow of the piece,” says Huxman. “You have these huge strong chords and then you have these delicate little pieces too. But you definitely a lot of emotion in it that you have to tap into.”

You can hear the Mass, along some of Beethoven’s best known works, this Saturday and Sunday at Century II.

Video: Bethel College performs in WSO's Beethoven Blowout

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