Ludwig Van Beethoven Symphony No

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphony no. 9 Complete symphonies vol. 5 THE NETHERLANDS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Jan Willem de Vriend 1 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphony no. 9 Complete symphonies vol. 5 THE NETHERLANDS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Jan Willem de Vriend Annemarie Kremer soprano Wilke te Brummelstroete alt Marcel Reijans tenor Geert Smits baritone Choir: Consensus Vocalis Choir conductor: Klaas Stok LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) “I am Isis. I am that is, and that was, goddess of motherhood (Isis), he felt and that shall be, and no mortal hath it was his moral duty to give the world Symphony no. 9 op. 125 in d minor (1824) raised the veil from before my face.” - what it was that he could give: his [1] Allegro ma non troppo e un poco maestoso 14:45 famous inscription on the colonnade musical legacy. [2] Molto vivace 13:08 of the Temple of Isis in ancient Egypt. [3] Adagio molto e cantabile 12:32 (Ich bin, was da ist / Ich bin alles The developmental history of the [4] Finale: Presto 22:47 was ist, was war, und was seyn wird, ninth symphony goes back a long way. kein sterblicher Mensch hat meinen Beethoven worked on it from 1818 to total time 63:14 Schleyer aufgehoben) 1824. But he had read Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” (“An die Freude”) before 1793, Beethoven once wrote this down and and from that time on he had fostered the sentence had lain on his desk ever a wish to set the text to music. In the since, together with another one: “He final decade of the eighteenth century, is One, self-existent, and to that One, Beethoven could not yet suspect that all things owe their existence.” (“Er ist the words would become so powerful einzig von ihm selbst, diesem Einzigen in a symphony. Over the years, musi- sind alle Dinge ihr Daseyn schuldig”)1. cal arrangements of several lines of These were important words to Schiller’s text appeared in his sketch- Beethoven. Perhaps they inspired him books. Increasingly, Beethoven felt the to aim for the highest attainable in his need to approach this on a grandiose work. And even if he could never gain scale, and in 1818 he gradually began a place as high as that One, or as the working out his ideas. On this, Lewis 1. I.a. in Maynard Solomon “Beethoven Essays”, p. 347 4 5 Lockwood says: “The Ninth in my view only by reaching toward the heavens dates back to the earliest reviews movements. The choice of D was written to revive a lost idealism. It to find God.”3 of the ninth. Of course, it is much minor was an essential aspect in was a strong political statement in a more than this. Some also cite this symphony: it was the key of time when the practical possibilities of The fact that, for many, the melody of the religious connotation of the turbulence, of desperation. It was realizing Schiller’s ideals of universal “Ode to Joy” represents Beethoven’s melody, perhaps referring to the a very important key for Mozart, brotherhood had been virtually extin- ninth symphony is because the Ode Lutheran chorale “Rejoice greatly, o for example. Suffice it to say “Don guished by the post-Napoleonic re- to Joy theme has become so famous my soul” (“Freu’ dich sehr, o meine Giovanni”: D minor is the main key gimes. Beethoven’s decision to com- and is still hugely popular today. The Seele”) or – recently proposed by of this fantastic opera, the demonic plete the work was thus intended to melody has been played at all the Hans Werner Küthen – a link to force of which, according to Lewis right the balance, to send a message Olympic Games, and it has been used Mozart’s “Offertorium Misericordias Lockwood, anticipates on the first of hope to the future, and to proclaim by the European Union as the official Domini” (KV 222). This same Küthen part of the ninth symphony.5 that message to the world.”2 European anthem since the 1980s. It reminds us that Schiller’s text had has also been used numerous times in profound connections with masonry, When I spoke with him about the Lockwood also stresses Beethoven’s commercials and films – in short, it is as a result of which certain critics symphonies, conductor Jan Willem sense that a lot depended on heard everywhere. saw Beethoven’s arrangement as a de Vriend added that around the time comparing and contrasting the genuine Masonic hymn.4 of the first sketches for the Ninth, the secular and the religious aspects in You might see the slow step-by- Welsh steam engine came into use in the “Ode to Joy”, and then bringing step march of this diatonic, bristling, But Beethoven’s Ninth is not only Vienna. And the first steam locomotive them together in the final movement: almost folksy melody as symbolic of the Ode to Joy, which serves as was built in England at the beginning “... the great synthesis in which humanity and universal brotherhood. an apotheosis in the finale. The of the 19th century. At the time, people humanity’s ideal state can be found This interpretation of the melody symphony also has three other were frightened by it: suddenly your 2. From “Beethoven - The Music and the Life” by Lewis Lockwood, p. 422 4. From “Beethoven Forum, vol. 7” - Michael C. Tusa, p. 118. 3. Idem., p. 423 5. From “Beethoven - The Music and the Life” by Lewis Lockwood, p. 427 6 7 body could be transported at tremen- chine being tested. And then there is Jan Willem de Vriend used to have a clothing line. As we now might speak dous speeds! It was viewed as some- the second movement, starting out friend with whom he spoke endlessly of Prada or Dolce&Gabbana, people thing of a wonder: “Your body arrives, with short rhythmic notes and then about the Beethoven symphonies. then spoke of the ‘Werther line’.7 but your spirit does not.” Character- speeding up, until it seems to mimic a In their talks, they tried to include istic of the Welsh steam engine was machine. Where is the machine taking as many things as they could from Although his behaviour did not always the fact that it consisted of two boilers us, where will it lead? This seems to the time when they were written. show it, Beethoven’s ideal was defi- instead of one, and the pressure from be the question behind it. The third Beethoven was in fact very ambivalent: nitely that all people would be equal. the boilers could be used to oper- movement is a sort of prayer and a although he felt that people were (This is why Schiller’s text appealed ate machines. Because the pressure hope articulated by Beethoven – the equal, he did not conduct himself ac- to him at such a young age.) After all, could vary greatly, the steam engine eternity of the human soul, the tri- cordingly. The people who worked for it is often the case that people who had many valves to indicate its tem- umph of good, the peace and calm him he treated like drudges, preferring have an ideal to which they devote perature. One such valve sounded this will bring. These machines will to associate with those of the nobility; themselves, with which they feel just like a fifth. If you then listen to the make us equal; no-one will have to not just because of the money but also great affinity, are absolutely unable beginning of the Ninth, you first hear grovel. As we know, the opposite hap- because of the status. He is known to to attain it in their daily lives. There is those semiquavers very gently perco- pened, but Beethoven did not know have dressed very well, certainly at the something appealingly human about lating, as if a fire is starting, and then this at the time. To cap it all off, in the beginning of the 19th century. Then the fact that Beethoven had big ideals you ‘hear’ the valves whistling in fifths final movement Beethoven cites Schill- you had the “junge Werther” craze, for himself – and for humanity – and and everything picks up speed, going er’s Ode to Joy, clearly coloured by a after the figure in Goethe’s novel, a that he could not integrate them in faster and faster, as if the machine is time that stood for freedom, for inde- book with the same status as a Harry his personal life. But he could use the shaking, and then … in the following pendence. Hope and optimism speak Potter today. Beethoven devoured the ideals in his work, he could unleash measures, everything ‘collapses’. So from the music and the only result can book and indeed dressed just like the a musical revolution. Is it not moving the first movement sounds like a ma- be that everyone picks up on it.6 young Werther. There was an entire that in the work of this man, who was 6. Interview with Jan Willem de Vriend 7. Interview with Jan Willem de Vriend 8 9 such an earthy person, the divine Valentine Laoût- van Leeuwenstein Jan Willem de Vriend Mahler tradition is being continued in spark can be observed so clearly? Translation: Carol Stennes/Muse Translations Jan Willem de Vriend is the chief recordings and tours. conductor and artistic director of The Beethoven will always continue to Netherlands Symphony Orchestra In addition to being the chief conduc- fascinate people. Whether you adore since 2006 and the artistic director of tor of The Netherlands Symphony him, admire him, criticise him or find Combattimento Consort Amsterdam.

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