Golden Age: Beethoven

Introduction

For more than a decade, the performance of the famous Symphony No. 9 has introduced the New Year at the Hungarian State Opera. Back in the day, its Hungarian premiere was directed by the same Ferenc Erkel who was also the OPERA’s first music director. What makes the performance even more special – as it was so in the last couple of years – is that it includes the 28 pages of Mahler’s notes that reaffirm Beethoven’s score in a number of points.

On 7 May 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven experienced something that can be dubbed the greatest public success of his career. On that very day, the audience at the could not only hear the Viennese premiere of the abbreviated version of Missa Solemnis but the world premiere of the Symphony No. 9 as well. The monumental piece was well received, and, according to one of the most touching accounts, the composer, who by this time had completely lost his hearing, could no longer hear the thundering applause of his admirers, so one of the soloists turned him towards the audience so that he could see the hundreds of clapping hands.

The success of the symphony is unbroken to this day, it is a hallmark of many festive occasions, the melody of Ode to Joy in the closing movement is a hit, and serves as the theme of many films, signals, and even the anthem of the European Union. All of this is as uplifting and touching as it is problematic and thought-provoking. This work, which conveys the deepest artistic expression of a lonely man, rises above every holiday, the EU anthem, and occasion. It is a truly epoch-making, unconventional piece of music, in which the composer struggled with his own overflowing message.

About No. 9

It was precisely for this reason that Beethoven came up with a new form, which he could not have known that would become a great model for romantic symphony composers. The first movement is dramatic beyond all imagination, the second is a wild scherzo. The third, slow movement is the most difficult: it is an amazing display of intimate, endless calm. The last movement is unapproachable from a performer’s point of view, the personal voice, the barely traceable, special variation technique is at the limit of feasibility.

Here, when Beethoven reached a point where he could no longer express what he wanted with instruments, he turned to vocals: the bass-baritone soloist, in fact, resents the apocalypse that the orchestra had formulated with “noble indignation”. “O Freunde, nicht diese Töne! sondern lasst uns angemengere anstimmen und freundenvollere.” That is, “Oh friends, no more of these sounds! Let us sing more cheerful songs, More full of joy!” The orchestra readily complies with the wish and performs the themes of the first three movements of the symphony in turn. However, the recitative of the cellos and double basses seem to disagree. And then softly, from the distance, the melody of joy is heard on the ensemble of deep strings, in one part, in the simplest possible form. The “spokesman” beckons, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief: they have found the melody that alone is suitable for expressing joy.

Beethoven’s successors and followers also used vocal soloists and choruses in their symphonies. As did Gustav Mahler, who created his own version of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the version featuring in the New Year’s concert. In his own famous Symphony No. 2, the last movement, which he himself called “Der große Appel”, i.e. The Great Call, depicts the moment when everyone gathers for the last judgment. Beethoven also expands the classical symphonic form with similar monumentality in terms of the ensemble. Symphony No 9 has an incomprehensible dramatic and even stage power, so perhaps it may be considered fate that it is performed on the stage of the Opera House from time to time. In Beethoven’s last symphony, everything sounds at the highest level, even beyond the limit of exaggeration.

Mahler’s version

In 1895, Gustav Mahler made a transcript of the piece, in which he did not introduce new musical ideas, but strengthened Beethoven’s concept only. One of the main changes is that Mahler expanded the dynamic markings of the original score, which range from pianissimo (pp) to fortissimo (ff), to the extremes, i.e. from pppp to ffff. He expanded the orchestra with additional timpani and four horns, doubled the number of woodwinds and strings, and substituted the natural horn and natural trumpet that had been in use until then with valve instruments, taking advantage of their possibilities. He did not change the vocal parts, the chorus, or the soloists, and he also kept Beethoven’s tempo markings. Of his orchestration Mahler wrote: “far from following any arbitrary purpose or course, but also without allow myself to be led astray by tradition, I was constantly and solely concerned with carrying out Beethoven’s wishes into their minutest detail, and ensuring that nothing the master intended should be sacrificed […].”

Edited by Diána Eszter Mátrai
(Based on Marianne Pándi, Hangversenykalauz, Zenekari művek, Editio Musica Budapest 1980. 103-121., a 1992 study by Harris Goldsmith, and an interview with János Kovács, conductor of the 2023 performance)