ERIC HARRISON, HOST:
Good afternoon and thanks for tuning in to Little Rock Public Radio, KLRE-FM, 90.5. I'm Eric Harrison, I write about arts and culture at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and I’ll be your host for the next two hours.
You're listening to our new show, ‘Major and Minor Masterpieces,’ where we will focus each week on a broad range of classical music, from chamber music to choral works to full symphonies and maybe even a touch or two of opera.
Today our focus is on choral-orchestral works by Ludwig van Beethoven, starting with his Fantasy for piano, chorus and orchestra in c minor, op.80, better known as the “Choral Fantasy.”
The work debuted in December 1808 as the hastily-put-together grand finale of a Beethoven marathon benefit (for himself) that saw the premieres of his Fifth and Sixth symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto, sections of his C major Mass and the concert aria “Ah, perfido!” Beethoven himself played the piano part and there’s some evidence that he improvised much of the opening solo on the spot.
The piece is essentially in three sections — the first a wild display of pianistic fervor; the second, primarily a statement from the orchestra with occasional piano interpolations and some orchestra-piano dialogue that establishes the main themes; and a finale that incorporates a chorus and six vocal soloists (two sopranos, alto, two tenors and bass).
This piece preceded by 15 years the composition of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, but it could be considered a study or prelude for it, as it resembles it in many ways, both structurally, in its use of the orchestra to display the main theme — which shifts from c minor to C major through a triple horn call, then goes through eight variations — and in the choral melody itself, which distinctly resembles the symphony’s “Ode to Joy” finale.
Beethoven recycled the music from a previous setting of Gottfried August Burger’s poem “Gegenliebe” (“Reciprocal Love”), setting a new text written for the occasion by Christoph Kuttner, which in some ways echoes the “Ode to Joy”:
With grace, charm and sweet sounds
The harmonies of our life,
And the sense of beauty engenders
The flowers which eternally bloom.
Peace and joy advancing in perfect accord,
Like the alternating play of the waves;
All harsh and hostile elements
fall into place in bliss.
This recording features Leif Ove Andsnes, pianist and conductor, with the Prague Philahrmonic Choir and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The soloists unfortunately are not identified.
(LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN’S “CHORAL FANTASY”)
You’ve been listening to pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, leading the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and a set of unidentified vocal soloists in the “Choral Fantasy” by Ludwig van Beethoven on Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio.
—PROGRAM BREAK—
[EDUCATIONAL SEGMENT]
SARAH BUFORD, PRODUCER:
Hey listeners, welcome back to Major and Minor Masterpieces. I’m your producer, Sarah Buford and it's time for our show’s little educational session in which we break down some of the terminology we use when describing classical music and its history to make classical music more accessible for our community.
So, Eric, you’ve got a fun word for us today: Coloratura. Could you please break it down for us?
ERIC HARRISON, HOST:
When talking about vocal character, Sarah, coloratura frequently comes up. Narrowly, it means “elaborate embellishment in vocal music,” and/or “a soprano with a light agile voice specializing in coloratura,” but it’s a little more complicated than that.
Like most such terms, it’s Italian, meaning, as you might expect, “coloring,” derived from the Latin word “colorare” ("to color”).
Generally found in vocal music from the late 18th and 19th centuries, it involves enhancing a melodic line with runs, trills, wide leaps or similar ways of proving a singer’s virtuosity. You’ll hear a lot of it in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; probably the most famous bit of coloratura is the “Queen of the Night” aria from “The Magic Flute.” And we have an example for you here…
(SOUNDBITE OF WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART’S “QUEEN OF THE NIGHT”)
Though most often associated with sopranos, there are coloratura roles and arias written for all voice parts.
SARAH: Ooh okay, that’s great to know. Thank you so much, Eric! Let's get back to more Major and Minor Masterpieces.
[END OF EDUCATIONAL SEGMENT]
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH “BOITEG” CIESLINKSKI’S “FIRST VIOLIN”)
ERIC: Now on to the Ninth Symphony, by far the most epic of Beethoven’s symphonies, both in terms of length (over an hour) and the size of the performing forces (the largest orchestra Beethoven employed — 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle and strings). And in what at the time was the absolutely revolutionary introduction of vocal soloists and chorus in the finale, the text of which Beethoven adapted from Friedrich Schiller’s 1785 Ode “To Joy.”
A version of the melody first appears in the song we previously mentioned, “Gegenliebe.” Advance echoes appear in the “Choral Fantasy”; you can also hear similarities in the vocal writing in the final scene of his only opera, “Fidelio” and in the Missa Solemnis, which Beethoven was composing throughout the period he was penning the symphony — between the spring of 1823 and January 1824 — and a portion of which you will hear later in the program.
The premiere took place in Vienna on May 7, 1824. Beethoven’s hearing had deteriorated to the point that his conducting of the performance was out of the question, so Michael Umlauf was on the podium, but Beethoven stood at his side, attempting to direct the tempos.
After the final notes sounded, the audience went absolutely crazy, reportedly giving it five standing ovations and, according to contemporary accounts, “raising their hats and handkerchiefs in the air.” Alto soloist Karoline Unger recalled some years later that “The master, though placed in the midst of this confluence of music, heard nothing of it at all and was not even sensible of the applause of the audience at the end of his great work, but continued standing with his back to the audience, and beating the time.” Unger reportedly turned him around “to face the people, who were still clapping their hands, and giving way to the greatest demonstrations of pleasure.
“His turning round, and the sudden conviction thereby forced upon everybody that he had not done so before, because he could not hear what was going on, acted like an electric shock on all present, and a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration followed, which was repeated again and again, and seemed as if it would never end.”
The work has been a centerpiece in all sorts of settings ever since — for example, the second movement was used for many years as the introductory theme for the NBC Nightly News — including a performance conducted by Leonard Bernstein on Christmas Day, 1989, to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, in which the final chorus was dubbed “Ode to Freedom” and changing the text from Schiller’s“Freude” (joy) to “Freiheit” (freedom).
With thanks to various folks whose program notes we’re raiding, The symphony is in four movements. The first opens with the stormy introduction of a two-note descending motif (pairs of descending notes provide the thematic nucleus for much of the symphony). The scherzo appears as the symphony’s second (rather than the traditional third) movement, which is a beautiful songlike Adagio molto e cantabile.
Beethoven opens the finale by reintroducing the themes from the first three movements, each only to be rejected each in turn by the cello section, which reacts by musically crossing them out, the gentle third-movement melody with obvious musical regret.
Finally, the orchestra presents the immortal “Ode to Joy” melody. The bass soloist heralds the entrance of the vocal soloists and chorus with the phrase, “O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!” (“Oh friends, no more these sounds!”) and an urging to sing songs praising joy. Beethoven varies the theme, ending in a Prestissimo race to the finish.
We’ve gotten our hands on a live May 2006 concert recording by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia Singers Chorale, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, with soloists Marina Mescheriakova, soprano; Jill Grove, mezzo-soprano; Vinson Cole, tenor; and Alan Held, bass-baritone.
(LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN’S “ODE TO JOY”)
You’ve been listening to a live May 2006 concert recording by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia Singers Chorale, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, with soloists Marina Mescheriakova, soprano; Jill Grove, mezzo-soprano; Vinson Cole, tenor; and Alan Held, bass-baritone, on today’s “Major and Minor Masterpieces” on Little Rock Public Radio and KLRE-FM, 90.5.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH “BOITEG” CIESLINKSKI’S “FIRST VIOLIN”)
—PROGRAM BREAK—
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH “BOITEG” CIESLINKSKI’S “FIRST VIOLIN”)
ERIC HARRISON, HOST:
We mentioned Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, his massive setting of the Catholic Mass, which he was finishing — after years of stop-and-start composing, at about the same time as the Ninth Symphony. Three movements — the Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei — debuted at that May 1824 concert along with the Ninth Symphony.
You’l hear more echoes of the Ninth Symphony in the final section, the “Agnus Dei,” in a 2010 recording with Philippe Herreweghe conducting the La Chapelle Royale Choir, Collegium Vocale Gent & Orchestre des Champs Elysees, and soloists Rosa Mannion, soprano; Birgit Remmert, mezzo-soprano; James Taylor, tenor (no, not that James Taylor) and Cornelius Hauptmann, bass.
(LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN’S “AGNUS DEI”)
You’ve been listening to the final movement, the “Agnus Dei,” of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. Philippe Herreweghe conducted the La Chapelle Royale Choir, Collegium Vocale Gent & Orchestre des Champs Elysees, with soloists Rosa Mannion, soprano; Birgit Remmert, mezzo-soprano; James Taylor, tenor and Cornelius Hauptmann, bass.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH “BOITEG” CIESLINKSKI’S “FIRST VIOLIN”)
Thanks for listening this week! I’ve been your host, Eric Harrison of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. You’ve been listening to Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio and classical station KLRE FM 90.5. Many thanks to Operations Coordinator and Producer Sarah Buford for all her hard work making all this sound good as well as a big thank you to Wojciech Cieslinski for our transition and credit music. Tune in next week for more Major and Minor Masterpieces.