Beethoven Symphony No.9 in D Minor ‘Choral’
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BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO.9 IN D MINOR ‘CHORAL’ KLAUS TENNSTEDT conductor LUCIA POPP soprano ANN MURRAY mezzo-soprano ANTHONY ROLFE JOHNSON tenor RENÉ PAPE bass LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and CHOIR Friedrich von Schiller’s poem ‘Ode to Joy’ turned round by the contralto soloist Caroline could almost have been calculated to appeal Unger to see hats and handkerchiefs being to the idealistic Beethoven. Written in 1785, it waved frantically all over the hall. ‘The whole lauds the joys of fellowship, the happiness of audience was impressed, crushed by the married life, the wonders of nature and greatness of your work’, wrote Beethoven’s the universe and the eternal mystery of friend Anton Schindler. Vienna may not have divine love, and as early as 1793 Beethoven always appreciated Mozart to the full, but it was considering setting it as a song. In 1812 certainly loved Beethoven. he attempted a ‘choral overture’ using parts of the text, but it was not for another decade The Ninth is not, strictly speaking, that he was to find a true home for it when Beethoven’s last symphony – in 1825 he he made it the subject of the extraordinary began but failed to complete another – and revolutionary finale to his Ninth and but it is a fitting summation of his last symphony, the first ever to include a mighty contribution to the genre’s history. choral movement. His achievement had been nothing less than that of bringing about an irreversible It was not just accommodating Schiller’s transformation in the entire concept of words that took a long time, however. what a symphony is, turning a piece of Although the symphony was essentially concert music designed primarily to entertain composed in a ten-month burst between into a psychological journey in which, over April 1823 and January 1824, there is a case the course of four movements, the listener’s for saying that Beethoven had been writing emotions undergo some kind of change. it for much longer – he had contemplated This could be triumph over adversity, as in the a D minor symphony as early as 1812, death and rebirth of the Eroica, or a passage immediately after the completion of the from darkness to light as demonstrated in Seventh and Eighth, while some of its musical the famous Fifth Symphony. In the Ninth, it ideas date back even further. Not that these is a journey from a bleak and brutal void to matters would have concerned the audience a glorious vision of an ideal world of love, at the work’s first performance in Vienna’s tolerance and universal brotherhood. Kärntnerthor Theatre in May 1824; for them the excitement lay in hearing Beethoven’s Certainly the shimmering strings which open first new symphony in twelve years, and the first movement seem to conjure a mood they lapped it up. At the end the applause of primeval emptiness before the music was thunderous, and the deaf composer was moves on into more combative regions. At the end, a sternly resolute theme Schiller’s message which dominates, and as emerges from the depths like a clenched the voices take over, we hear in the course fist. The second movement seems of further variations on the theme a vision straightforwardly joyful with its playful of Elysium that is by turns exultant and timpani beats (spontaneously applauded awestruck. ‘This gigantic work’, Hans Keller at the first performance), its interplay suggested, ‘should convince even the between the violins and its cheeky ending, firmest pessimist that mankind’s life has but there is more than a hint of seriousness been worthwhile.’ underlying it as well. The third movement is unambiguous in intent, however, a sublimely For Klaus Tennstedt, conspicuous success tender and beautiful set of variations on a came relatively late, but in the last two tune whose deceptively simple hymn-like decades of his life he was a major figure nature is a Beethoven speciality, above all on the international conducting scene. in ‘late-period’ works. Born into a musical family in the Saxon town of Merseburg in 1926, his early path as And then the finale bursts in, startlingly a conductor in East Germany was solid but and radically. At first the orchestra reviews unremarkable: having had to give up a career themes from all three earlier movements, as an orchestral violinist in Halle because of with the cellos and basses seeming to a hand problem, he held conducting posts at debate their worth in melodic phrases the Chemnitz Opera, the Dresden Staatsoper which deliberately mimic the style of vocal and the Mecklenburg State Theatre in recitative. It is as if they are struggling to tell Schwerin. In 1971 he defected to the West, us something, yet it is also a dramatically initially to work at the Stora Theatre in enhanced continuation of the fragmentary, Gothenburg and the Kiel Opera, but by now groping introductions to the finales of two he was also well experienced as an orchestral earlier symphonies, the First and the Third. conductor, and when he stood in as a late Eventually, though, the orchestra hits on replacement for Karel Ančerl in Bruckner’s the now-famous folksong-like theme, but Seventh Symphony with the Toronto after they have played a few variations on it Symphony in 1974 the resulting rave reviews another upheaval leads to the first human changed his fortunes for ever. He went on to sounds – a bass soloist commanding us conduct all the major American orchestras, to discard all this in favour of ‘pleasing and when a sensational London debut and more joyful tones’. These words are followed in 1976 he was soon in demand Beethoven’s, but from here to the end it is with the big names in Europe as well. Posts were gained with the North German Radio brash, punchy Beethoven introduced by the Symphony Orchestra and the Minnesota likes of Roger Norrington and subsequently Orchestra, before the London Philharmonic echoed even by conductors such as Rattle, Orchestra made him its Principal Guest Abbado and Haitink, Tennstedt’s preference Conductor in 1980. In 1983 he succeeded Sir is for the long phrase, the inexorably timed Georg Solti as the Orchestra’s Music Director. climax and the grandly drawn gesture With the LPO he would make a number of which place him firmly in a line from the highly regarded recordings, mainly for EMI, German Romantic tradition. ‘From the including works by Beethoven, Wagner, wrong end of the nineteenth century’ is Bruckner and Strauss, and a complete cycle how one reviewer characterised an earlier of the Mahler symphonies that stands as Tennstedt performance of the ‘Choral’, but perhaps his greatest legacy. Yet fragile health in an interview given in 1993 the now ailing – his time in London coincided with two conductor suggested an altogether more hip replacements and treatment for throat urgent interpretational imperative for his cancer – meant that his appearances with particular brand of musicmaking. ‘I live now’, the orchestra were restricted, and when he he said. ‘This is today!’ collapsed at a rehearsal in 1987 he resigned his post immediately. He continued to work Lindsay Kemp 2007 with them as Conductor Laureate, however, until his full retirement in 1994. His death came in Kiel four years later. The emotional intensity and architectural sense which made Tennstedt so celebrated as a conductor of Mahler and Bruckner are well in evidence in this performance of Beethoven’s ‘Choral’ Symphony, recorded during a concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall in October 1992. This is epic, romantic Beethoven, which pays little or no heed to the radical and influential rethinkings that had recently been brought about by the period- instrument movement. Rather than the 04 Presto O Freunde, nicht diese Töne! Sondern O friends, not these sounds! lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen, und Rather let us strike up something more freudenvollere! pleasing and joyful! Freude, schöne Götterfunken, Joy, lovely spark of the divine, Tochter aus Elysium, Daughter from Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Drunk with fire, we approach, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum! Heavenly one, thy shrine! Deine Zauber binden wieder Thy spells reunite Was die Mode streng geteilt; What convention has torn apart; Alle Menschen werden Brüder All humanity becomes brothers Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt. Where thy gentle wings rest. Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen Let him who has that great good fortune Eines Freundes Freund zu sein, A friend’s friend to be, Wer ein holdes Weib errungen Let him who has gained a charming wife Mische seinen Jubel ein! Join in rejoicing! Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele Yes, and whoever calls even one soul Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund! Upon the earth his own! Und wer’s nie gekonnt, der stehle And he who never could, let him steal Weinend sich aus diesem Bund. weeping away. Freude trinken alle Wesen All creatures drink joy An den Brüsten der Natur, At Nature’s breast, Alle Guten, alle Bösen All the good, all the evil Folgen ihrer Rosenspur. Follow her rosy trail. Küsse gab sie uns und Reben, She gave us kisses and the vine, Einen Freund geprüft im Tod, A proven friend to the death, Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben, The worm was given sensual feelings, Und der Cherub steht vor Gott! And the cherub stands before God! Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen Glad, as his suns race Durch des Himmels prächt’gen Plan, Through the heavens’ glorious design, Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn, Run your course, brothers, Freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen. Joyful, like a hero to the victory. Seid umschlungen, Millionen, Be embraced, you millions, Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt! This kiss for all the world! Brüder, überm Sternenzelt Brothers, above the starry firmament Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.