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By Matthew Westphal
10 Dec 2007
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's recent Beethoven Festival, offering all nine of the composer's symphonies in chronological order over five weekends' programs, scored a major success for the orchestra both artistically and at the box office.
The Dallas Morning News reports today that the festival attracted more than 27,000 listeners, about one-quarter of whom had never attended a DSO concert before, according to orchestra CEO Fred Bronstein.
Two of the programs sold out completely: the program for the first weekend in November, which featured conductor Jaap van Zweden's first performances with the DSO since being appointed the orchestra's music director-designate, and BBC Symphony chief conductor Jirí Bélohlávek's performances of the ever-popular Ninth Symphony.
All of the programs — including the first two, which featured guest conductors Gilbert Varga and Markus Stenz — were warmly received by audiences and critics.
"What I was most thrilled with was the overall quality of the concerts," Bronstein told the paper. "Obviously, it begins with what happens onstage. My own feeling was that this festival would stand up to anything anywhere."
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