And through the peace of worldly space,
The ninth wave washed to
the very stars
O Thought, reveal yourself! Word, become music,
Strike to the hearts of men, let the world rejoice!
Nikolai
Zabolotsky. Beethoven
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony ranks alongside such great works
of art as Homer’s poems, Dante’s La divina commedia, Cervantes’
Don Quixote, Goethe’s Faust and Bach’s High
Mass... It expressed the aims of its age in an utterly
perfect manner, and at the same time it gave a voice to human ideals
to which we remain faithful to this very day. It concluded Beethoven
the symphonist’s artistic path and it also paved the way for
the future.
By including poetic verse in the symphony,
Beethoven took an incredibly innovative step which initially staggered his
contemporaries. For the composer himself, the writing of
the Ninth Symphony was the result of many years’ work in an
attempt to find a musical embodiment for Schiller’s Ode an die
Freude.
For the first time, Beethoven took a text
in order to express the philosophical concept of a symphony. But
the most important thing, even starting with Beethoven himself, is that
the symphony – as subtly expressed by German music historian Paul
Bekker – performs the role of a “secular mass” that brings
concert hall audiences together in the same way that a Sunday
mass brings parishioners together at church. And it is not by chance that
Beethoven’s brilliant rendering of Schiller’s Ode an die Freude is
the official anthem of the European Union, a united Europe. It is
not by chance that it is performed everywhere as an apotheosis of freedom and
fraternity of all mankind.
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was first performed on
7 May 1824 in Vienna under the baton of the composer.
Iosif Raiskin
Programme:
Ludwig van
Beethoven
Symphony No 9
Mariinsky Theatre Soloists, Chorus, Children’s Chorus and Orchestra
Children’s Chorus Master: Dmitry Ralko
Principal Chorus Master:
Andrei Petrenko
Conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado