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发表于 2003-9-13 01:29:08
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Beethoven Symphony No.9 on Record
"Grand Symphony with Solo and Chorus voices entering in the Finale on Schiller's Ode to Joy."
Description of the symphony at the first performance
"Never in my life did I hear such frenetic yet cordial applause...When the parterre broke out in applauding cries for the fifth time the Police Commissioner yelled 'Silence!' Three successive bursts of applause were the rule for the Imperial Family, and Beethoven got five. No wonder the police were annoyed."
Anton Schindler
After a considerable symphonic hiatus, on May 7 1824, Beethoven unveiled The Ninth (the definite article is always sounded as capitalised in this connection). The idea of setting Schiller's Ode to Joy had first occurred to Beethoven as early as 1793, while he was still in Bonn, but it was to be three decade before he actually completed the task. Indeed, the composer's sketchbooks for the few years preceding the completion of The Ninth show that he had originally been working simultaneously on ideas for two symphonies (he had also worked in parallel on the Fifth and Sixth, and the Seventh and Eighth) before eventually combining the two projected works into a single symphony.
Caroline Unger, who sang the alto part in the premiere, in 1869 described the concert to Grove, who later wrote: "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 this great work, but continued standing with his back to the audience and beating the time (Thalberg, who was present, told Thayer that the conductor had instructed the orchestra and choir to 'pay no attention whatsoever to Beethoven's beating of the time, but to watch him') till Fraulein Unger turned him, or induced him to turn and face the people, who were still clapping their hands and giving was to the greatest demonstrations of pleasure. His turning about, and the sudden conviction thereby forced on 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."
Once again though, not everybody is as convinced of the symphony's greatness: after the Frankfurt premiere in 1825 (April 1st - the April connection rears its head again!) one critic wrote: "It appears to us in so far as it is seemly to judge after a single hearing of this composition - that the genius of the great master was not present at its conception," while Louis Spohr called the finale "so monstrous and tasteless and, in its grasp of Schiller's Ode, so trivial that I cannot understand how a genius like Beethoven could have written it." To which one might respond that if Spohr could have understood, perhaps he too would have been a genius.
Even into this century opinions differ: Sir Thomas Beecham once proclaimed that "even Beethoven thumped the tub; the Ninth Symphony was composed by a kind of Mr. Gladstone of music" whereas Joseph Stalin, after a performance of the finale at a Soviet Congress in Moscow, declared that "this is the right music for the masses, it can't be performed often enough," resulting, according to Heinz Unger, in "a kind of Beethoven epidemic" in the Soviet Union.
The Ninth is the summit of Beethoven's symphonic output, the work which brought the voice into the symphony, thus paving the way for Mahler's great choral works, and the symphony which provided the formal structural pattern for practically every single Bruckner symphony.
Recommendations
Stereo
Orfeo, as part of a series to celebrate the orchestra's 40th birthday, issued a live recording by Rafael Kubelik with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Well played, well sung, well recorded, this is a performance of real stature and arguably the finest stereo version of all.
Of other modern recordings, I prefer Karajan's 1977 version to that of 1962 in places (e.g. the first movement and the coda of the finale) but many would disagree, and it cannot be denied that his soprano is no substitute for the blessed Gundula Janowitz. All seem to agree, however, that Karajan's digital 1983 version is a lemon: most of all for its poor recording quality.
Karl Böhm's 1981 recording, his last before his death, is extremely fine, although he does adopt almost ponderously slow tempi in the last movement.
Bernstein's East Berlin Christmas Day 1989 performance (DG) has attracted a lot of attention, partly for historical reasons (the Berlin wall had recently come down) and also because of his substituting the word "Freiheit" (freedom) for "Freude" (Joy) in Schiller's Ode. The story goes that Schiller intended "Freiheit" originally, but used "Freude" in order to avoid problems with the political authorities. This is a very good performance, but hardly a great one.
Jochum's 1979 LSO version was, and maybe still is, available on a budget EMI issue. This is also an exciting performance, the final bars particularly so, from the last surviving (since deceased) representative of the great German tradition. One drawback, for me, is the singing of Kiri Te Kanawa: she tries hard, poor dear, but really seems to have no idea - this is Beethoven's Ninth, love, not The Marriage of Figaro!
Period
Since the last version of this survey I have finally come across a couple of period Ninths that are worth listening to. Praise be!
Outstanding is the Brüggen (Philips) which, like his Eroica is recommendable even to non-period performance enthusiasts. Brüggen, quite simply, views Beethoven's Ninth as a heaven-storming masterpiece and that's the way he performs it. There is an intensity and dedication to this performance which I find in no other period Ninth.
Perhaps surprisingly, my second choice - admittedly some way behind Brüggen - is for the Hanover Band version conducted by Roy Goodman (Nimbus). Although it doesn't have the same level of intensity as the Brüggen, it is still a fine performance and suffers from none of the tempo silliness that so much afflicts the remaining three contenders.
The version by Roger Norrington has drawn a lot of attention since its first release. It's certainly different - his slow movement, for example, is almost twice as fast as Furtwängler's: more andante than adagio. He also adopts some odd speeds in the finale - the alla marcia "Turkish music" section sounding more like a funeral march; and, while the accompanying booklet offers very convincing arguments for them, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I find them ultimately interesting rather than engrossing.
Chrisopher Hogwood offers a performance of almost identical tempos to Norrington; they sound just as daft when he does it.
My opprobrium, though, is saved for John Eliot Gardiner. Perhaps because his entire cycle, and the Ninth not the least, has been hailed as some kind of Second Coming. I really, really dislike Gardiner's Ninth, perhaps most of all of his cycle. Once again he seems to skate the surface of the music - it is a triumph (!?) of style over substance.
Historical
Again I have to plump for Furtwängler as first choice: the greatest single performance of the work I have ever heard, was recorded at a live performance in Berlin in March 1942 (Music and Arts). The original recording, on early tape technology, was not exactly hi-fi to begin with, but is remarkable for its age. The performance itself is electrifying, with an enormous buildup of tension in the first movement, leading to a great catharsis in the finale, where Furtwängler takes the great fugue after the tenor solo so fast that even the Berlin PO seems unable at first to keep up with him. This is, understandably given the circumstances of its recording, a gripping and indeed at times harrowing reading, not for everyday listening, but nobody who values The Ninth should miss hearing this incredible account.
The most famous recording is probably Furtwängler's from 1951. This was another live recording, made at the reopening of the Bayreuth opera house after the war; it was felt that only an artist of Furtwängler's stature could purge the venue of its Nazi associations. This recording has never been out of the catalogue since its original issue nearly 40 years ago - a tribute to its greatness.
Interestingly enough, though, EMI actually intended to issue another Furtwängler Beethoven Ninth, recorded in 1954 (the year of his death) at the Lucerne Festival with the Philharmonia - the prime reason Walter Legge wanted them to issue it. Because of contractual problems EMI could not release it, and instead, in 1955, issued the 1951 Bayreuth performance. The 1954 Lucerne performance is also a great one; although it has been previously available on several other labels, its current incarnation on the French Tahra label (run by Hermann Scherchen's daughter Miriam incidentally) is reckoned to be the finest transfer it has ever had. Must get this disc.
There are some interesting historical recordings around too: the 1935 VPO/Weingartner and the 1927 Berlin Staatsoper/Fried (disciple of Mahler), a 1947 live Bruno Walter, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London, with Kathleen Ferrier. This last suffers from a poor recording - you have been warned - but shows that Walter could be as cosmic in the Ninth as the other big names.
A few years ago I once again listened - out of a sense of duty for a radio programme I am engaged on - to the 1952 Toscanini. I thought I merely didn't care for it much; now I realised I hated it. I actually put on the 1942 Furtwängler finale afterwards to take away the taste. This (like his 1953 Eroica) seems to sum up for me all that was wrong with Toscanini during the last years of his life: hard driven and inflexible - and his soprano shouts during the final quartet.
One final note for the historically - and "authentically" minded. According to Sir Donald Tovey, Beethoven changed a word of Schiller's Ode: in the manuscript of the 9th symphony, but in none of the printed editions, the end of the first stanza read "Was die mode frech (not streng) geteilt" (Which custom has impudently, rather than sternly, parted). And all that fuss they made about Lenny changing "Freude" to "Freiheit"!
To my knowledge the only recording to feature this change is Jascha Horenstein's 1950s VSO recording. This has been reissued on Vox's budget Allegretto label, but the transfer is terrible, and the sound even fade out in the middle of the slow movement - just where my LP copy has to be turned over. Draw your own conclusions. A great performance, but I really can't recommend the CD to anyone except Horenstein fanatics (like myself). Somebody at Vox should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Still, recently they have been reissuing Horenstein recordings in much improved sound. If anyone at Vox is reading this - please, please do the same for this Ninth.
(As a brief aside, it was Horenstein who - in 1954! - recorded the first complete Brandenburg Concerti on period instruments; one of the viola da gamba players was a certain Nikolaus Harnoncourt......... This set is also available on CD now) |
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