Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma kicked up emotions Monday night. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Viewpoint: How Beethoven 250 Made Me Relive Beethoven 9/11

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma kicked up emotions on Monday night. Photo by Todd Rosenberg. I approached Monday’s Symphony Center concert of Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma performing Beethoven piano trios by with some trepidation. For nearly 20 years those piano trios have held a special place in my heart. This came out of a 3-day festival at the Kennedy Center’s roof-top Terrace Theater in Washington, DC, where nearly all of Beethoven’s works for piano trio were performed by the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Music performed on a wonderful evening. Photo by Louis Harris. The opening concert went well. It included two works Ax, Kavakos, and Ma also played: the Gasenhaus Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11, and my favorite Beethoven Trio, in E-flat major, Op. 70 No. 2. The concert also included Trio in G-major, Op. 1 No. 2. It was a wonderful way to start the festival on a lovely Monday evening, September 10, 2001. The concert the following evening didn’t happen because that morning two airplanes destroyed the World Trade Center, one airplane hit the Pentagon across the Potomac River from the Kennedy Center, and a fourth airplane was brought down in rural Pennsylvania. Because rescheduling was impossible, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio almost crammed two nights of music into a single marathon concert on the following evening, Wednesday, September 12, 2001. While it’s hard to put into words the fear and uncertainty we all felt in DC during those horrible days, one memory stands out as sharp as a dagger: standing on the rooftop of the Kennedy Center and seeing the still smoldering Pentagon across the Potomac 36 hours after the attack. By that time, I had been living in DC for 17 years. Everyone sensed that our lives had changed irrevocably, but it was too soon to know how. What was supposed to happen afterwards. Photo by Louis Harris. The final work on that sad Wednesday evening was the Archduke Trio, one of Beethoven’s most sublime works, which was also the final work that Ax, Kavakos, and Ma played this past Monday. To this day, I am unable to hear the slow, Archduke variations without getting choked up, and I have avoided performances of it. I was hoping to get through Monday’s concert without my handkerchief, but Ax, Kavakos, and Ma performed those variations too beautifully. In retrospect, there was no better music than Beethoven’s piano trios to soothe the anguish we all felt from 9/11. There’s also no better music to stir up memories, however painful. The man.  
#2001#9/11#Beethoven 250#Emanuel Ax#Leonidas Kavakos#September 11#Symphony Center#yo yo ma
Louis Harris

A lover of music his whole life, Louis Harris has written extensively from the early days of punk and alternative rock. More recently he has focused on classical music, especially chamber ensembles. He has reviewed concerts, festivals, and recordings and has interviewed composers and performers. He has paid special attention to Chicago’s rich and robust contemporary art music scene. He occasionally writes poetry and has a published novel to his credit, 32 Variations on a Theme by Basil II in the Key of Washington, DC. He now lives on the north side of Chicago, which he considers to be the greatest city in the country, if not the world. Member of the Music Critics Association of North America.