| ›Not These Tones‹
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125
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8th Première Subscription Concert
17-12-2008, 08:00 PM
Bremen, The Glocke
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| Soloists
| Deutscher Kammerchor, Choir
Paavo Järvi, Conductor
Christiane Oelze, Soprano
Petra Lang, Mezzo-Soprano
Donald Litaker, Tenor
Matthias Goerne, Bariton
| Program
| In principle, the announcement of ›The Ninth‹ requires no explanation. When the work resounds, it is a holiday or at least a celebration of music. But popularity and grandeur have left behind problematic traces. Many listeners seem to want to hear the imploring closing chorus immediately. What can be done to free Beethoven's symphonic legacy from triteness as an injection of morality?
Beethoven had long intended to set Schiller's ›Ode to Joy‹ to music. In the Ninth Symphony, it appears at the end of a problematic path and broken structure. The work is too complex for a festive mood. The transformation of contrasting themes passes through the ups and downs of a struggle for final statements. »All men become brothers« sounds like a utopia; the human experience and environment work against its fulfillment. Beethoven wrested the music out of himself; the concept of fraternity from the French Revolution is sullied. The »necessary destruction of past structures is shifted to the subjective«, declares Michael Gielen, explaining the pain in the joyful chorus.
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