The other day I was visiting with an SSO donor. I thoroughly enjoy talking with people who have played a part in this new era of Saskatoon’s orchestra. I always learn something about the SSO when I talk to our patrons – some come because they are passionate about classical music, some come because it’s a great social outing, others because they love live music, others still who want to be musically adventurous.
On this particular day, I was asked an important question. She asked me what my plans were.
Since coming to the SSO nearly three years ago, I’m very proud to say that this is a different organization – and it has been an incredible collective effort: a dedicated board with ideas, a hard working staff, musicians who are doing incredible work, a great musical leader, and an audience who love coming along for the ride. We have changed the way we operate, the way we program, the way we function, the way we budget, and the way we connect with the community. We have a lot of things that still need to be changed, but it amazing how far we’ve come.
But one thing has not changed. The drive for artistic excellence.
If you were at our first concert this season, you sat up in your seat for the last movement of the Beethoven. I’m certain of it. It was full of life. It was why we have a symphony.
I’m proud to say that we’re not the only ones taking notice of this new era of the SSO. A recent peer assessment from Canada Council noted the “energetic performances” that “demonstrated much emotional commitment”. They noted our clear sense of direction. At a recent meeting where Eric and I shared the peers’ comments with the board, Eric said something that summed it all up: “we’re just getting started.”
We have some big plans in the works, but like a good symphony they’ll take a team effort. The reality is that the SSO is surviving, but it needs to flourish…and I believe that our audience wants us to flourish, and is ready to help with that.
We are thrilled about this season – we have some incredible artistic projects and programs underway….but just wait to see what is in the works for the future! We have some of world’s greatest musicians lined up to come to Saskatoon in the upcoming years…and we have a few remarkable community partnerships. We want a vibrant musical community that looks to the SSO for inspiration.
We want to start a music literacy program – the future of our music community relies on planting the seed of musical interest in the minds of our youth. We have a chance to bring Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program to Saskatoon, and we want to launch a new musical mentorship program Kitocikewin for students who presently don’t have access to any music education. We are ready and waiting to launch these programs…but with our current situation of being under funded, we don’t have an Education Coordinator. We need one. Soon.
We want to record. Nope, scratch that. I think the SSO has the potential to produce an award winning record, and because I like to dream big I’m going to say I’d like us to win a JUNO. We have some guest artists who are wanting and excited to work with us on recordings. Recording creates more work for our musicians. Recording allows people across this country to hear what is happening in Saskatoon.
We want to do more to be an incubator in our music community – we want to encourage the development of young musicians, create opportunities for emerging artists, create opportunities for collaborations, performances, and ideas to come to life. We want to create artistic bridges that enrich and inspire and close the gaps. We want to be a space where the musical eco-system thrives and grows. Big dreams are important.
Artistic excellence takes time, and it takes hard work, and it takes passion, and we’re going to need your help. The next steps of our artistic excellence are within reach, can you hear it?
Composer Andrew Staniland has firmly established himself as one of Canada’s most important and innovative musical voices. Described by Alex Ross in the New Yorker magazine as “alternately beautiful and terrifying”, his music is regularly heard on CBC Radio 2 and has been performed and broadcast internationally in over 35 countries. Andrew is the recipient of the 2009 National Grand Prize in EVOLUTION, presented by CBC Radio 2/Espace Musique and The Banff Centre, top prizes in the SOCAN young composers competition, and the 2004 Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian Music. As a leading composer of his generation, he has been recognized by election to the Inaugural Cohort of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists Royal Society of Canada in 2014.
Andrew has been Affiliate Composer to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (2006-09) and the National Arts Centre Orchestra (2002–04), and has also been in residence at the Centre du Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis (Paris, 2005). Recent commissioners include the Gryphon Trio, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the Toronto Symphony, cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, and American Opera Projects. Andrew is the lead composer/educator with the Gryphon Trio’s Listen Up! education initiative, created and produced in collaboration with the Gryphon Trio and music educator Rob Kapilow. Andrew also performs himself, both as a guitarist and working with new media (computers and electronics). Andrew is currently on faculty at Memorial University in St John’s Newfoundland.
The SSO opens their 86th Season with Andrew’s Voyageur – from the composer:
‘Voyageur was commissioned for the TSO’s Northern Residency Tour in 2007 as part of a program to also feature Beethoven’s venerable 5th, penned in the early 1800s in Austria – a time and place that was producing what we now call the classical canon, but also a point in time at which Canada was so young we had yet to traverse it by water. In Europe, composers were defining and exploring the symphonic form; in North America, voyageurs were searching for a water route over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean – an interesting comparison. I was inspired by the adventurous, boisterous spirit that these early voyageurs must have had. Composers at their best embody this very spirit: exploring the new and unfamiliar, charting new courses of statement and expression.’
Silver medalist and laureate of the Krystian Zimerman award of the best sonata at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, Charles Richard-Hamelin is standing out as one of the most important pianists of his generation. He also won the second prize at the Montreal International Musical Competition and the third prize and special award for the best performance of a Beethoven sonata at the Seoul International Music Competition in South Korea. In April 2015, he was awarded the prestigious Career Development Award offered by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto.
He has appeared in various prestigious festivals including the Prague Spring Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron in France, “Chopin and his Europe” Festival in Warsaw and the Lanaudière Festival in Canada. As a soloist, he has performed with various ensembles including the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Academy Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, OFUNAM (Mexico), Korean Symphony Orchestra and I Musici de Montréal.
Originally from Lanaudière in Québec, Charles Richard-Hamelin studied with Paul Surdulescu, Sara Laimon, Boris Berman and André Laplante. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in performance from McGill University in 2011 and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music in 2013 and received full scholarships in both institutions. He also completed an Artist Diploma program at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal in 2016 and currently takes lessons on a regular basis with pianist Jean Saulnier. His first solo CD, which features late works by Chopin, was released on the Analekta label in September 2015 and received widespread acclaim from critics throughout the world (Diapason, BBC Music Magazine, Le Devoir).
press
“The fondamental qualities that we’ve always seen in this pianist remain the same : a real sonority that comes from his entire body, a large palette of colors and a real poetic sense. With his recent gain of freedom and experience, a true discourse emerges. […] His conduct is always impeccable. By conduct, I mean the architectural and emotional conception of a work, the tempo and mood relations, the dynamic layering. Additionally, when appropriate, a highly sensitive ear to the art of transition. That is exactly what gave him high marks in Warsaw, giving listeners the impression of living an experience, especially in the Third Sonata.”
Christophe Huss, Le Devoir (November 27, 2015)
“I had been waiting for such a performance since the beginning of the Competition. The man is every inch an artist, an extraordinarily mature musician who focuses on the beauty of Chopin’s works, which he performs with a high degree of consciousness. He is one of the few who can find a wise balance between the spirit of Chopin and his own individuality, which he demonstrated, for instance, in his masterful interpretation of the Ballade in A-flat major.”
Róża Światczyńska, Polish Radio 2 (October 7, 2015)
“His sense of time, his sense of harmony, above all his structural originalities are immensely sophisticated and daring. Richard-Hamelin seemed to be aware of the total Chopin – not just melting us with liquid line after liquid line of Chopin’s famous melodies, but exposing inner voices and harmonic twists in both left and right hands, and illuminating Chopin’s extraordinary structural gambits, especially in his Third Sonata which closed the program. At the end of a very long program of Chopin, Hamelin entranced his audience with the soft languor of his playing at one moment, passage-work that was always musical at another, bravura playing at yet another. He is an artist firmly on a unique and original path.”
Robert Harris, The Globe and Mail (January 17, 2016)
Aside from Cho’s epic performance, second-place winner Charles Richard-Hamelin also received much-earned roaring applause for his interpretation of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58. Richard-Hamelin’s set was so elegantly executed that one couldn’t help but be baffled that his performance was ranked second.
Julie Jackson, The Korea Herald (February 3, 2016)
“Charles Richard-Hamelin’s cultivated playing showed in the emotional depth of his A flat major Ballade.”
John Allison, The Telegraph (October 22, 2015)
“Charles Richard-Hamelin ended the semis with a superbly absorbing concert where he seemed to follow his hands like a child after a butterfly. After an astonishing Pour le Piano by Debussy and some sweetly imaginative Scriabin, he performed Chopin’s Sonata No. 3 opulently and with unbelievable ease. He transmits love for the instrument.”
It’s tempting to feel sorry forBeethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Hidden away amid the Fifth (the most famous opening four notes in the history of classical music, the Sixth (how could anyone fail to love the ‘Pastoral’?) and the mighty colossus that is his Ninth, you feel as if the Seventh is a work that could easily get forgotten.
That fate has arguably befallen Symphony No. 8 – but not No. 7. The raw power and drama found in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 seem, in many ways, to be receiving their first full outing here. There’s a visceral quality to the music – not least in the almost crazed finale when the musicians appear to be playing as if their lives depend on it. The sombre second movement, which featured in the filmThe King’s Speechand summed up the moment perfectly, is a wonderful blend between orchestral gravitas and the swelling tunes Beethoven writes so well. In the case of the premiere, those orchestral musicians included fellowcomposersMeyerbeer, Spohr and Moscheles, with Beethoven himself on the podium.
Described by Wagner, no less, as ‘the apotheosis of the dance’, this four-movement symphony begins in grave, sombre tones. Not for Beethoven the stirring opening to the Fifth, or the lilting, sunny start to the Sixth; instead, the orchestral colours are dark, creating a sense of foreboding about what’s to come. The lightness of touch in later parts of the symphony – particularly the third movement – is therefore surprising, with some parts seeming very consciously to link back to the light-hearted mood of the Pastoral. The unbounded finale, meanwhile, was apparently summed up byTchaikovskyas ‘a whole series of images, full of unrestrained joy, full of bliss and pleasure of life’.
The Seventh Symphony’s premiere concert[on December 8, 1813]was performed to benefit the soldiers wounded a few months earlier in the battle of Hanau. It was one of Beethoven’s most successful concerts.
Viennese audiences, miserable from Napoleon’s 1805 and 1809 occupations of Vienna and hopefully awaiting a victory over him, embraced the symphony’s energy and beauty.
Even today, the second movement remains extremely popular and is often performed separately.
Occasionally, Beethoven wrote something that was immediately recognized as both artistically great and hugely popular. An example is the second movement of his Seventh Symphony, a piece that was often performed separately from the complete Symphony and that may have been Beethoven’s most popular orchestral composition.
It also exerted extraordinary influence on later composers, as the slow movements of Schubert’s “Great” C-major Symphony and E-flat Piano Trio, Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, and other works attest.
After its premiere, the Seventh Symphony was repeated three times in the following 10 weeks; at one of the performances the “applause rose to the point of ecstasy,” according to a newspaper account.
The Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra is calling all interested choral singers to audition for the 2016-2017 season of the SSO Chorus.
This season includes performances of Bach’s Cantata 140 “Wachet Auf”, Handel’s “Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened”, Mozart’s “Coronation Mass”, and of course Handel’s Messiah.
The chorus is conducted and rehearsed by SSO Chorus Master Duff Warkentin. The SSO Chorus has limited rehearsal times in the weeks leading up to performances with the intention being that all choristers come with the score fully learned prior to rehearsals so that the attention and focus can be on the artistic details of the work.
In its first two seasons, the SSO Chorus was a resounding success bringing to life “the best Messiah Saskatoon has ever heard!”. We are thrilled to expand the programming for a third season and present the first professional performances of Bach’s Wachet Auf and Mozart’s Coronation Mass in Saskatoon.
The SSO is proud of its commitment to Canadian music, and we’ve been waiting all season for this one! Composer Christos Hatzis is a mighty figure in the landscape of new music – his work knows no boundaries and has garnered him the interest and intrigue of audiences around the globe. Hatzis is always exploring new ways to make music, and recently his ballet “Going Home Star” has blended the world of modern dance and reconciliation.
His Lamento caught our attention has a passionate exploration of a love affair. When the SSO was bringing this particular concert program together we noted that the pairing of Nuits D’Ete and Lamento made for exceptional story-telling, something so basic that everyone can relate – love and loss. A human condition that is undeniably relevant today as when Purcell wrote his lament, to Berlioz’s lament, and finally a new Canadian Lamento written specifically for Sarah Slean.
Lamento for pop singer (contralto) and orchestra is a cycle consisting of three songs built on top of a chromatically descending bass line, known in classical music as the “lamentobass.” The composition was commissioned by CBC Radio for Canadian pop diva Sarah Slean and Symphony Nova Scotia and it received its premiere performance in April of 2012 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The idea for Lamento came to me after reading an article by Alex Ross, the music editor of the New Yorker magazine, on the history of the lamento bass, the best known example of which is the aria “When I am Laid in Earth” from Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. It was Ross who, through this article, brought to my attention that the lamento bass, after a protracted absence, had migrated into the popular music of the 20th Century in such classics as Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin and Hotel California by the Eagles,[1] among others. It seemed natural that both this memorable baseline and the unforgettable Purcell aria should act as the guide for my cross-genre compositional experiment. The lamento bass is reputably a stylized musical rendering of the mourning human voice and the Purcell aria is uttered by the opera’s lead female character immediately before she takes her own life due to broken heart.
The first two songs of Lamento are two contrasting studies of the female mind confronting the loss by death of a lover. “When This is Over,” the first song, focuses on the agonizing transformation from initially resenting the “pull” from the other side to ultimately seeking it. In the lyrics, this song plants the dark seeds of suicide and the personal experience of mental illness, which are more fully explored in the last song of the cycle. In the music, the dark clouds of orchestral dissonance give way to a jazz-like verse, which alternates with a chorus in a distant key, a key that reveals its affinity to the Purcell aria halfway through the song in the strings under a jazz trumpet solo.
“My Song”, the second song of the cycle, could not be more different in character from the first. While personal loss is still pronounced, the memory of the departed becomes a source of power, even when frailty is claimed. The music is more symmetrical and strophic (this is the most “pop” of the three songs.) The lamento bass appears only in the chorus section and it is atypically extended beyond a chromatically descending octave, thus causing harmonic progressions reminiscent of the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff and other late nineteenth century composers. Accepting personal loss is here equated with empowerment climaxing with the words “I’m calling to you” set to music reminiscent of Elgar-like triumphalism. Viewed from a different angle, the celebratory nature of this song, especially the way it is sandwiched between two much darker ones, may also signify denial—one’s refusal to accept the inner devastation caused by an adverse turn of fortune. Which of the two it is depends entirely on one’s personal outlook.
“Despair,” the third song and the darkest of the three, can be best described as self-reflection of a suicidal mind. It is the most complex and eclectic of the three songs. Musical genres change suddenly, while high percussion lines remain unchanging over sharp tempo changes by means of metric modulation. Purcell’s aria is ever-present, either as instrumental accompaniment or in its entirety at the end of the song. In the middle, conspiratorial references to treatment of mental disease are linked with sound samples reminiscent of musical experiments during the Weimar Republic just before the dawn of Nazism (Kurt Weill and Alban Berg come to mind) which eventually surrender to the darkest of all thoughts that, after we die, we can only remain alive to the extend that we remain in other people’s memories. The repeated request by the singer to “remember me” is finally taken outside the representational space of the song and into direct experience, as she makes a full circle asking remembrance, first from the musicians of the orchestra, and finally from the audience.
Let me close this note by saying that my own outlook on life and death is invariably luminous, spiritual and optimistic. In this juncture of my spiritual development, however, I felt the need to personally undergo a psychological rite of passage through the waters of Hades, perhaps in order to confront the darkness lurking in me and better understand my own and only adversary hiding somewhere inside the left side of my brain. In this sense, the composition of Lamento has been a spiritually cathartic experience. I hope it becomes a similar experience to the work’s musical interpreters and listeners.
[1] As a matter of fact, the harmonies of both songs are all in root position but their sequence implies a virtual lamento baseline.
Canadian soprano Ileana Montalbetti’s“voice rings, her breath support is flawless, she can turn an elegant phrase and…has dramatic ability”(John Terauds, Toronto Star).
The 2015/16 season sees Montalbetti debuting with L’Opéra National de Paris, as Sacerdotessa inAida(Verdi) and with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra as the soprano soloist in Symphony #9 (Beethoven).
During the 2014/15 season Montalbetti reprised the role of Leonore inFidelio(Beethoven) with Manitoba Opera and debuted with Opéra-Théâtre de Limoges as Agathe inDer Freischütz(Weber) and appeared in concerts featuring excerpts fromLohengrinandFidelio.
Montalbetti’s 2013 season included her role debut and Dora Mavor Moore Award nominated performance of Ellen Orford opposite Ben Heppner’s Peter in the Canadian Opera Company production ofPeter Grimes(Britten).
Highlights from the 2012/13 season included her debuts with Edmonton Opera as Antonia inThe Tales of Hoffmann(Offenbach) and Michigan Opera Theatre as Leonore inFidelio(Beethoven). Ms Montalbetti returned to the Canadian Opera Company to cover both Leonora inIl Trovatoreand Rosalinde inDie Fledermaus. She also returned to her hometown of Saskatoon for a solo recital presented by The Lyell Gustin Recital Series.
Ms Montalbetti is a graduate of the prestigious Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio Program where she had the opportunity to perform various roles, including Clorinda inLa Cenerentola,Elettra in the Ensemble Studio Performance ofIdomeneoand The Voice of the Mother inThe Tales of Hoffmann. Ileana also had the opportunity to cover a wide spectrum of roles throughout her four years in the program.
Ms. Montalbetti is an alumni of the Chautauqua Institute where she performed Tatyana inEugene Oneginand Countess Almaviva inLe Nozze di Figaro. She has also held two consecutive soprano fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Centre where, most notably, she performed Celestial Voice in a concert version ofDon Carlounder the baton of Maestro James Levine.
Ms. Montalbetti is a 2012 & 2010 Laureate of the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyrique. She was a winner of the 2012 New York District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was given a 2012 Encouragement Award from the Sullivan Foundation. Ms. Montalbetti placed second in the 2011 Christina and Louis Quilico Awards and was nominated by the Canadian Opera Company to compete in the 2011 Stella Maris Vocal Competition. She holds an opera diploma from the University of Toronto.
Beethoven’s final symphony is a monstrous undertaking for any orchestra – it demands the highest quality of playing and demands a great deal of commitment from its listener.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRcCOjMSm6E]
Wikipedia source:
The symphony is in four movements, marked as follows:
Adagio molto ecantabile– Andante moderato – Tempo primo – Andante moderato – Adagio – Lo stesso tempo (B-flat major)
Recitative: (D minor-D major) (Presto – Allegro ma non troppo – Vivace – Adagio cantabile – Allegro assai – Presto:O Freunde) – Allegro molto assai:Freude, schöner Götterfunken– Alla marcia – Allegro assai vivace:Froh, wie seine Sonnen– Andante maestoso:Seid umschlungen, Millionen!– Adagio ma non troppo, ma divoto:Ihr, stürzt nieder– Allegro energico, sempre benmarcato: (Freude, schöner Götterfunken–Seid umschlungen, Millionen!) – Allegro ma non tanto:Freude, Tochter aus Elysium!– Prestissimo, Maestoso, Molto prestissimo:Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Beethoven changes the usual pattern ofClassicalsymphonies in placing thescherzomovement before the slow movement (in symphonies, slow movements are usually placed before scherzo[19]). This was the first time that he did this in a symphony, although he had done so in some previous works (including thequartetsOp. 18 no. 5, the “Archduke”piano trioOp. 97, theHammerklavierpiano sonata Op. 106).Haydn, too, had used this arrangement in a number of his own works such as theString Quartet No. 30in E-flat major.
First movement
Allegro ma non troppo, un pocomaestoso. Duration approx. 15 mins.
The first movement is insonata form, and the mood is often stormy. The opening theme, playedpianissimoover string tremolos, so much resembles the sound of an orchestra tuning, many commentators have suggested that was Beethoven’s inspiration—but from within that musical limbo emerges a theme of power and clarity that later drives the entire movement. At the outset of therecapitulationsection, the theme returnsfortissimoin D major, rather than the opening’s D minor. The introduction also uses themedianttotonicrelationship, which further distorts the tonic key until, finally, thebassoonplays in its lowest possible register.
Scherzo: Molto vivace – Presto. Duration approx. 12 mins.
The second movement, ascherzo and trio, is also in D minor, with the introduction bearing a passing resemblance to the opening theme of the first movement, a pattern also found in theHammerklavierpiano sonata, written a few years earlier. At times during the piece, Beethoven specifies one downbeat every three measures—perhaps because of the fast tempo—with the directionritmo di tre battute(“rhythm of three beats”), and one beat every four measures with the directionritmo di quattro battute(“rhythm of four beats”).
Beethoven had been criticized before for failing to adhere to standard form for his compositions. He used this movement to answer his critics. Normally, a scherzo is in triple time. Beethoven wrote this piece in triple time, but punctuated it in a way that, when coupled with the tempo, makes it sound as if it were in quadruple time.
While adhering to the standardternary designof a dance movement (scherzo-trio-scherzo, or minuet-trio-minuet), the scherzo section has an elaborate internal structure; it is a complete sonata form. Within this sonata form, the first group of the exposition starts out with afuguebefore modulating toC majorfor the second part. The exposition then repeats before a short development section. The recapitulation further develops the exposition, also containingtimpanisolos. A new development section leads to the repeat of the recapitulation, and the scherzo concludes with a briefcodetta.
The contrasting trio section is in D major and in duple time. The trio is the first time thetrombonesplay in the movement. Following the trio, the second occurrence of the scherzo, unlike the first, plays through without any repetition, after which there is a brief reprise of the trio, and the movement ends with an abrupt coda.
Third movement
Adagio molto e cantabile – Andante Moderato – Tempo Primo – Andante Moderato – Adagio – Lo Stesso Tempo. Duration approx. 16 mins.
The lyrical slow movement, in B-flat major, is in a loosevariationform, with each pair of variations progressively elaborating the rhythm and melody. The first variation, like the theme, is in 4/4 time, the second in 12/8. The variations are separated by passages in 3/4, the first in D major, the second in G major. The final variation is twice interrupted by episodes in which loud fanfares for the full orchestra are answered by octaves played by the first violins alone. A prominenthornsolo is assigned to the fourth player.Trombonesaretacetfor the movement.
Fourth movement
Presto; Allegro molto assai (Alla marcia); Andante maestoso; Allegro energico, sempre ben marcato. Duration approx. 24 mins.
The famous choral finale is Beethoven’s musical representation of Universal Brotherhood. American pianist and music scholarCharles Rosenhas characterized it as a symphony within a symphony, played without interruption.[20]This “inner symphony” follows the same overall pattern as the Ninth Symphony as a whole. The scheme is as follows:
First “movement”: theme and variations with slow introduction. The main theme, which first appears in the cellos and basses, is later recapitulated with voices.
Second “movement”: 6/8 scherzo in military style (begins at “Alla marcia,” words “Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen”), in the “Turkish style“—and concludes with a 6/8 variation of the main theme with chorus.
Third “movement”: slow meditation with a new theme on the text “Seid umschlungen, Millionen!” (begins at “Andantemaestoso”)
Fourth “movement”:fugatofinale on the themes of the first and third “movements” (begins at “Allegroenergico”)
The movement has a thematic unity, in which every part is based on either the main theme, the “Seid umschlungen” theme, or some combination of the two.
The first “movement within a movement” itself is organized into sections:
An introduction, which starts with a stormyPrestopassage. It then briefly quotes all three of the previous movements in order, each dismissed by the cellos and basses, which then play in an instrumental foreshadowing of the vocalrecitative. At the introduction of the main theme, the cellos and basses take it up and play it through.
The main theme forms the basis of a series ofvariationsfor orchestra alone.
The introduction is then repeated from thePrestopassage, this time with the bass soloist singing the recitatives previously suggested by cellos and basses.
The main theme again undergoes variations, this time for vocal soloists and chorus.[21]
Text of the fourth movement
The text is largely taken fromSchiller‘s “Ode to Joy“, with a few additional introductory words written specifically by Beethoven (shown in italics).[22]The text without repeats is shown below, with a translation into English.[23]The score includes many repeats. For the full libretto, including all repetitions, see German Wikisource.[24]
Towards the end of the movement, the choir sings the last four lines of the main theme, concluding with “Alle Menschen“, before the soloists sing for one last time the song of joy at a slower tempo. The chorus repeats parts of “Seid umschlungen, Millionen! …“, then quietly sings, “Tochter aus Elysium“. And finally, “Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Götterfunken!“.[24]
Ludwig van Beethoven – Bonn, Germany / December 15, 1770; d. Vienna, Austria / March 26, 1827
The evolution of this towering piece, one of the supreme achievements of western art, spanned more than three decades. Beethoven read Friedrich Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy in 1793, and determined to set it to music one day. By 1822, he had two symphonic projects in mind. The first was a purely instrumental work; the second a “German Symphony,” with a finale to be sung in that language. Eventually, they merged in his mind, stimulated in part by a commission from the Philharmonic Society of London. It struck Beethoven that his English patrons would not be pleased with a symphony containing words in a foreign tongue, so he decided to write them a purely instrumental work instead. Later still, he came to feel that his conception, whose first three movements he completed by mid 1823, cried out for words to express its goals more clearly. It was only then that his long-delayed rendezvous with the Ode to Joy finally arrived.
Considering the reverence which he felt for Schiller’s poem, it is surprising that he set only half of it, and changed the sequence of those sections he did use. At the time, he still seems to have been considering using the symphony to fulfill his English commission. His final decisions were to trust the judgment of his patrons and leave Schiller’s words in their original German, and to have the premiere take place in Vienna, rather than in London.
The Ninth Symphony was heard for the first time on May 7, 1824, with Michael Umlauf conducting. The composer sat in the midst of the orchestra, score in hand, in order to indicate tempos. The performance, which had been allotted only two rehearsals, was at best a mediocre one, yet it still drew an enthusiastic response from the audience.
According to Fraulein Unger, the alto soloist, “The Master, though placed in the midst of this confluence of music, heard nothing of it at all, and was not even sensible to the applause of the audience at the end of his great work. He continued standing with his back to the audience and beating the time, until I turned him, to face the people, who were still clapping their hands and giving way to the greatest demonstrations of pleasure. His turning about, and the sudden conviction thereby forced on everyone 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.”
By setting particular words in the Ninth, Beethoven let it be known that he considered it more than an abstract work. This prompts speculation as to whether he had conceived every movement with specific extra musical ideas in mind. He left no direct indications; such considerations must rest with listeners. In general terms, however, the sequence of moods in its three opening sections is as easy to follow as the Finale’s.
The first movement begins quietly, yet it vibrates with the expectancy of drama. Throughout this movement’s dramatic course, interludes of repose crop up, but tension and turmoil stand squarely at center stage. The following scherzo raises this type of piece, formerly a simple jest or dance, to Olympian heights of drive and brilliance. Beethoven gave the timpani player one of the finest opportunities for display in all music. The prayer like third movement offers strong, devout contrast. It consists of variations on two gloriously warm-hearted themes.
After the finale’s turbulent introduction, Beethoven reviews, then rejects, material from the preceding movements. Cellos and basses quietly state the finale’s principal theme, a melody whose very lack of guile makes it completely appropriate to its function. It gathers momentum slowly, yet inexorably, until a reprise of the movement’s opening outburst sets the scene for the baritone soloist’s entry – and a whole new era in music.
Beethoven’s setting of the Ode to Joy contains a tremendous variety of incident. Its kaleidoscope of episodes include passages of almost frenzied choral celebration; a march like tenor solo spiked with Turkish percussion; a brilliant fugue for orchestra alone; and the simple, affecting piety of the central call to faith in God. Finally, orchestra and chorus rush headlong to the exultant conclusion.
On this particular day, I was asked an important question. She asked me what my plans were. 
