My wife, Marilyn, and I were at Hill Auditorium last night to usher for the University Musical Society (UMS) here in Ann Arbor. This is now our fourth year ushering. We’ve been able to enjoy many fabulous concerts over the years by internationally renowned musicians in one of the great concert halls in the world! UMS is a university-based performing arts presenting organization that was founded in 1879. It was recently awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama.

Last night we heard Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardio Muti. This has always been a favorite of mine because it introduced me to the world of classical music when I was just a freshman at Cullman High School. I bought a recording conducted by Leonard Bernstein which included a tutorial on the music of Beethoven and the Fifth Symphony that premiered in Vienna in 1808 when Beethoven was only 38 years old. When I first heard the Fifth it sounded very strange, and I really couldn’t understand why it was considered a masterpiece for so many over the past two centuries. I listened to it again and again. Then I began to read about Beethoven’s life and the history of music in Vienna at the time he lived there. About that time my father bought a new stereo and I continued to listen to the Fifth over and over. I turned up the volume more, and then slowly it began to make sense and stirred feelings in me that I had never known before. I began to understand the struggle Beethoven and most thinking people in the world undergo when faced with the reality of their own mortality, their imperfections and limitations, the search for meaning in their lives, and the discovery of true freedom. The late husband of a friend of mine, Ernie Kurtz, called this the “spirituality of imperfection” in his book of the same name.

All those feelings came rushing back to me last night. The acoustics at Hill Auditorium are just incredible! It was a sellout crowd last night and the response of the audience was almost as incredible as the performance itself! People leaped to their feet after the finale and then gave multiple standing ovations. I knew I was in good company when I saw that so many appreciated the gift of genius that Beethoven had created for all humanity. Last night I gained new insights into the music and my own life. Today I feel very lucky to be alive, to be in good health, and to be living in such a great community as Ann Arbor! UMS made this possible. Thank you UMS, Maestro Muti, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra!

The tone color was sometimes amazing. Ricardo Muti’s body language often gave a beautiful interpretation of the music. My standard when listening to familiar pieces is whether the performance makes me hear something new that I hadn’t noticed before – whether the performance refreshes my interest in familiar music. This was the case with both symphonies last night.

The UMS audience often lacks restraint. The obsession with cellphones is remarkable, but irreversible, I fear. One should not let in latecomers before the intermission. It is disrupting others’ focus.

Opening the concert with the Michigan song was not a good idea. It did not set the right tone. We don’t come to the concert so that we can clap to some marching song. We come to the concert focus and to quietly appreciate.