Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto
The conclusion of the Rīga Festival will bring together a bouquet of international artists, with a hymnal note of joy meaning respectful farewell for Latvia’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s grand 9th Symphony in D-minor (1824) is one of the most popular opuses in the history of Western Europe. It is one of the grandest spiritual works ever produced by humanity, and it has not lost its importance at all. Representatives of each generation hear something close and understandable in the symphony.
It is May 7, 1824. The Kartnertortheater in Vienna is hosting a concert of music by Ludwig van Beethoven, with the composer himself conducting the orchestra. The auditorium is overflowing, because this is the first time that the master has stepped on stage during the past 12 years. The audience hears his 9th Symphony, which had been completed only shortly before the concert itself.
“Beethoven’s gestures as the conductor seemed rather crazy,” violinist Josef Böhm later recalled. “Sometimes he stretched his entire body, sometimes he sank to the ground. It seemed as if he wanted to play all of the instruments in the orchestra and to sing in place of the entire choir.”
The truth was that the musicians were trying to follow the rhythm of the composer while also watching the baton of the theatre’s chapel mater. Beethoven had been fully deaf for a number of years, and the music that he was conducting existed only in his imagination. A legend says that as the last chords of the symphony rang out, the composer was a few beats behind the orchestra, and without noticing that the symphony was over, he continued to conduct it. Viola player Caroline Unger approached him and turned the maestro so that the faced the audience. People leapt to their feet and applauded Beethoven with all of their might. Knowing that the man was deaf, they also threw hats into the air and waved handkerchiefs in his direction to show their delight.
The 9th Symphony is particularly well known for “Ode to Joy,” which is a poem by Friedrich Schiller, slightly changed by Beethoven and heard in the last movement of the symphony, with the participation of soloists and the choir.
In 1972, the Council of Europe declared “Ode to Joy” to be Europe’s anthem. Today it is hard to believe that the great opera composer Giuseppe Verdi once write in a letter that the first three movements of the symphony were wonderful, but the last was a real failure, because the composition of vocal lines at that level was no great example of art.
Meanwhile, those who enjoy sensationalism will be interested to learn that the original score of the 9th Symphony was sold at Sotheby’s in 2003 for USD 3.3 million.
Also on the programme this evening is the dynamic 3rd Piano Concerto from the classic 20th century composer Sergey Prokofiev. It was composed in Brittany in 1921 and dedicated to the composer’s future wife, Carolina Cordina. The premiere of the concerto occurred after he moved to Chicago in the United States, and it was very successful. The composer was a great fan of Josef Haydn’s music, and that is why many elements of Viennese Classicism are found in his diverse output, including the beautiful and vital 3rd Piano Concerto. The Russian poet Konstantin Balmont, a representative of Symbolism, described the concerto as one in which “the invincible Scythian strikes the tambourine of the sun.”
Programme
Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Sergey Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto
Participants
Liene Kinča, soprano
Olesya Petrova, mezzo
Andreas Schager, tenor
Rihards Mačanovskis, bass
Vestards Šimkus, piano
The National Academic Choir “Latvia”
The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Modestas Pitrenas
