11/5/2009 10:40:13 AM

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By Tom Weber

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

Jere Lantz won't replace his conductor's baton with a sledge hammer this season, but the metaphor might be appropriate.

	If you go What: Rochester Symphony Orchestra & Chorale concert When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 Where: Mayo Civic Center Presentation Hall, 30 Civic Center Drive S.E. Tickets: $25 and $21 for adults, $15 and $11 for youth; available at the civic center box office; at the symphony office, 286-8742; and through Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 and www.ticketmaster.com. • Prior to the concert, Symphony 101, a behind-the-scenes look at the music with Lantz, will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. in Presentation Hall. The event is free to concert ticket-holders; pre-registration required at 286-8742. • From 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., a reception will be held in the Rochester Civic Theatre lobby with dessert treats, a cash bar and comments from Lantz.

"This is not a season of subtlety," said Lantz, music director of the Rochester Orchestra & Chorale. "It's a back-to-basics season."

And when it comes to the classics, there is perhaps no piece of music more basic than Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which the orchestra will perform in its entirety Nov. 14 at Mayo Civic Center. Beethoven's most famous symphony broke new ground musically nearly 200 years ago and continues to thrill audiences with its pounding rhythms and beautiful vocal passages.

"With the economy the way it is, especially the arts economy, we wanted to give people something they'd like," he said.

That's particularly important given the financial difficulties the Rochester orchestra faces. The organization has launched a fund drive, "Keep Our Orchestra Sound," to stave off potential financial disaster.

Beethoven's Ninth, with its "Ode to Joy" final movement, is certainly one of the most well-liked pieces in the entire classical repertoire. But opportunities to hear the 1-hour, 20-minute war horse in its entirely can be few and far between.

"It's such a big piece in every way," Lantz said. "It has that large canvas. It's a big, sprawling piece. It's a darn hard piece. But those very struggles are what make it exciting."

It can also be exhausting to play.

"We love to perform it, but it takes everything you've got," he said. "You don't play anything after that."

The orchestra will, however, play three pieces before the Beethoven symphony, including the Festival Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich, and the "Candide" overture by Leonard Bernstein.

"The question is, 'What do you put on with Beethoven's Ninth?'" Lantz said. "I thought it would be fun to do the two great overtures of the 20th century, both written at the same time, and from opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. They're very different pieces, but both are high energy."

The fourth piece on the concert is Charles Ives'"Double Fugue on American Hymns." The reputation of Ives, an insurance salesman who wrote music on the side, has been growing in recent decades. "For me, it's personally gratifying," said Lantz, who conducted three concerts of Ives' music in the 1970s in New England.

Plus, he said, "I put this piece on the first concert I programmed when I came to Rochester in 1980. We haven't done it since."

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