VALDOSTA – Valdosta Symphony audiences should not expect dust to sprinkle from the ceilings of Whitehead Auditorium into the pages of their programs.

Or cannonade to shake the house.

Light fixtures should not swing overhead. Ceiling plaster should not crack; nor should plaster sprinkle down onto the heads and shoulders of the musicians playing on stage. Audiences should expect to hear the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra performing the majesty, tragedy and depth of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, better known as the “Emperor” concerto, Saturday, Feb. 15, but should not expect to experience the conditions in which Beethoven composed the music. Dust sprinkled into the ink. Cannon blasts shook the house. Chandeliers creaked back and forth.

Despite the shaking of cannon and house and the tremors in his hands, wondering when it may be the walls falling upon him rather than just plaster, Beethoven composed the “Emperor.”

The man known as the Emperor – Napoleon – bombarded Vienna. The royal family had fled the city, trying to escape the French invasion led by Napoleon. Unlike the fleeing royals, Beethoven remained in Vienna.  Beethoven wondered if he would live or if what was left of his hearing would survive the thunder of French cannon. And what he couldn’t hear, he could feel in the rattle of windows, the rocking of furniture, the plaster raining upon him.

“The whole course of events has affected me in both body and soul,” Beethoven wrote of the Napoleonic invasion. “What a destructive and unruly life I see and hear around me; nothing but drums, cannon and human misery in every form.”   At times, he hid in a basement to protect his life, a pillow covering his ears to protect what was left of his hearing.

Despite the explosions, despite the aggression of Napoleon, Beethoven composed.   Beethoven wrote music in the face of deadly ruin.

Hearing this beautiful concerto more than 200 years later, a listener may never guess Beethoven composed it while surrounded by conflict and death.  The “Emperor” transcends the arrogance of a man who believed himself above all others. A man whom Beethoven originally admired for the possibility of what Napoleon could be but eventually detested for the violence of what he turned out to be.

Though it’s known as “Emperor,” the concerto is Beethoven’s “majestic final piano concerto,” said Howard Hsu, Valdosta Symphony conductor.

Valdosta Symphony Orchestra has booked a preeminent pianist to perform “Emperor.”

Jon Nakamatsu is the last American to win the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Hsu said. He won the gold medal in 1997 and is the only American to have won the competition since 1981.

“Nakamatsu was working as a high school German teacher when he won the competition,” Hsu said.

With three decades of touring history across the United States and around the world, “Nakamatsu continues to draw critical and public acclaim for his intensity, elegance and electrifying solo, concerto and chamber music performances,” according to biographical information supplied by the VSO. Since winning the Van Cliburn competition, he has “developed a multi-faceted career that encompasses recording, education, arts administration and public speaking in addition to his vast concert schedule.”

The Valdosta Symphony Orchestra will present more than just the “Emperor” to celebrate the legendary composer. The “Beethoven and Blue Jeans” concert also features Beethoven’s “Creatures of Prometheus Overture” and his Symphony No. 1 in C Major.

As for the dress code, Hsu said audience members can dress casually as the concert’s title theme suggests.

“The orchestra will be wearing jeans and a T-shirt,” Hsu said.