Beethoven & Blue Jeans
SPONSORED BY
The Mary Josephine Larkins Foundation
Frances & Irving Silver
media sponsor
Scott Speck, conductor
Stewart Goodyear, piano
Saturday, November 7, 2026 – 7:30 PM
Sunday, November 8, 2026 – 2:30 PM
Saenger Theatre
This concert, including intermission, is approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Please review the venue’s security policies including the use of clear bags/purses only by clicking here.
Program
Valerie Coleman: Seven O’Clock Shout*
(b.1970)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
(1770-1827)
INTERMISSION
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor”
(1770-1827) Stewart Goodyear
*The presentation of this work is made possible by a generous donation to MSO’s Symphonic Innovations Fund
Our Soloist
Stewart Goodyear, piano
Proclaimed “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and “one of the best pianists of his generation” by The Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist and composer. He has performed with, and has been commissioned by, many of the major orchestras and chamber music organizations around the world.
Highlights of Mr. Goodyear’s 2026-27 season include appearances with the Calgary Philharmonic, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Annapolis, Arkansas, Colorado, Mobile, Northwest Florida, and South Bend Symphony Orchestras, and a full weekend of all five Beethoven concerti with Orchestra Iowa and the Louisville Orchestra. Mr. Goodyear also gives solo recitals at Houston’s DACAMERA, Telluride Chamber Music, and Toronto’s Koerner Hall, and launches his new collaboration with the Imani Winds, which includes the quintet and sextet he commissioned for the ensemble. In summer 2026, he performed at the Grant Park Music Festival, Peninsula Music Festival, and Rockport Chamber Music Festival following a full seaon of international orchestral performances and recitals from the Eastman School of Music to The Gilmore.
Mr. Goodyear is also active as a composer. His recent commissions include an orchestral work for the Chineke! Orchestra, his Piano Quintet for the Penderecki String Quartet, and a piano work for the Honens Piano Competition.
Mr. Goodyear’s discography includes works by Beethoven, Grieg, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky. His Rachmaninov recording received a Juno nomination and the recording of his transcription of Tchaikovsky’s complete “The Nutcracker” was chosen by The New York Times as one of the best classical music recordings of 2015.
Mr. Goodyear is a Steinway Artist.
TakeNote! Learn More, Enjoy More
Enhance your concert experience with Take-Note! Join music experts and explore the world of classical music from an in-depth perspective. This informative pre-concert talk begins at 6:30 p.m. before Saturday classical performances and 1:30 p.m. before Sunday classical performances in Room 1927 adjacent to the Saenger entrance on Joachim Street.
Bring the kids for FREE on Sunday!
Through MSO’s Big Red Ticket program, sponsored by Alabama Power Foundation and the Figures Foundation, students in grades K-12 can attend any classical Sunday matinee FREE when accompanied by a paying adult. It’s a great cultural opportunity and an amazing concert experience! Seats are limited, so please purchase tickets by phone at (251)432-2010. Please no children under 5 and no babies in arms. Want to bring a student on a Saturday? Student tickets are just $10.
Speck Speaks
Music Director Scott Speck Discusses the Concert
“What a blast to perform BOTH of Beethoven’s Fifths on the same concert! These are pieces well known to the Mobile Symphony audiences, but we’ve never played them together.
I just love the Emperor Concerto. It has everything great about Beethoven: grandeur, inevitability, awesome power, lilting melody, individual expression, and an emotional range that stretches from melancholy to elation. It also happens to be the piece I conducted in my second concert ever, way back in college — and every time I conduct it, I’m swept back to those early days. Of course, any successful performance requires a great pianist. I’ve admired Stewart Goodyear from afar for many years, and it’s a gift to perform this concerto with him.
As for the Fifth Symphony, it’s the very epitome of struggle and triumph. There’s nothing more momentous in all of classical music than those first four notes — fate knocking on the door, as Beethoven himself reportedly described it. It may be an oversimplification to say that this symphony takes us on one singular trajectory from darkness to light — after all, the second movement is a lovely oasis, before the agitated third movement once again takes up the struggle. But the triumph of the finale is so complete, so extreme in its victory, so successful in sweeping all trouble away (and in C major, no less!), that feels like we’ve won an enormous battle. In this way, Beethoven’s Fifth became template for the most dramatic symphonies by Mahler, Bruckner, Shostakovich, Sibelius, and so many other composers who described a monumental struggle in music. After the Fifth, nothing was the same again.
As you might imagine, performing the Fifth Symphony is an effort. It’s a physical and emotional workout. It’s not like tossing off a virtuosic overture or concerto. It’s more like giving birth. And you can’t play something like this every day. So, we’re going to make these two performances count!”