The highlight of the classical music season this year was without question the Berliner Philharmoniker's appearances at Carnegie Hall last week where the orchestra performed the full cycle of the Beethoven symphonies under the baton of outgoing music director Simon Rattle. In honor of the occasion, WQXR on Thursday broadcast live a performance of the #8 and the #6, the Pastoral. (Click here to hear the archived broadcast of that concert.) But the real thrill for me was when I was lucky enough yesterday evening to be at the hall to hear the orchestra give their interpretation of the #9, the Choral.
Whether or not the Ninth is Beethoven's greatest work - personally, I would give that honor to the late quartets - it is undeniably one of the most important and most powerful symphonies ever written. It was not only Brahms who stood awe stricken in its shadow, but every composer up until our own day as well. This is a monolithic work in which Beethoven brought to bear the full weight of his genius and a lifetime of experience. It had had its genesis years before in the 1808 Choral Fantasy, Op. 80. In that earlier piece the composer had prefigured the symphony's most controversial element, the introduction of choral forces in the final movement. It was as though even then Beethoven felt he had to move beyond a purely instrumental level to give voice to his thoughts. A significant change in outlook, however, occurred in the sixteen year period that separated the composition of the two pieces. The key concept in earlier work had been that of strength as Beethoven stood firm against his suffering and determined to overcome it. While the composer had not been totally pleased with the text with which he had worked, he did wish to retain that specific term if a new text were to be substituted at some later date. That he was adamant in this regard can be seen in a letter he wrote to his publisher that is quoted in the Wikipedia article:
"You may wish to print another text, as the text like the music was written very quickly ... Still with another set of words I want the word kraft ["strength"] to be kept or one similar to it in its place."
On the other hand, Schiller's Ode to Joy expressed, in the most exalted terms possible, a celebration of brotherhood and the interconnectedness of all mankind. In taking this life affirming message as his text, Beethoven, no matter how cruelly cut off from society by his deafness, was determined to assert his place as a member of the family of man. The symphony can then be viewed as a refutation of the solitude circumstance had thrust upon him. While not denying his individuality, the composer saw himself as part of a greater whole. In that sense, the Ninth really deserves to be considered one of the earliest masterpieces of the Romantic tradition.
In a post written earlier this month I mentioned my belief that in composing his final piano sonatas Beethoven must have felt that he had exhausted all the possibilities the piano offered him. Recently, I came across a quote on the Ninth by Dennis Matthews that echoes this sentiment very well.
"As with other late-period works, there are places where the medium quivers under the weight of thought and emotion, where the deaf composer seemed to fight against, or reach beyond, instrumental and vocal limitations."
Terrible as it is to say, Beethoven's deafness, however catastrophic an affliction it may have been for him, was a boon for future generations of music lovers to the extent it propelled him beyond the limits imposed upon other composers. The very fact that he could not hear his own works caused him to think in terms of pure music, so much so that his compositions tested the capabilities of the instruments for which he was writing.
The performances by Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, both on Thursday evening and yesterday, were simply the finest renditions of Beethoven I've heard. Despite his flamboyant personality, Rattle is at bottom a master craftsman who carefully wrung from the music all the nuance and meaning Beethoven had invested in it. Every note was carefully considered and then impeccably executed by the musicians onstage. The Westminster Choir and soloists Susanna Phillips (replacing Annette Dasch), Eva Vogel, Christian Elsner and Dimitry Ivashchenko were uniformly excellent as well. I was impressed.
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