05-03 Schoenberg.qxp_Layout 1 4/25/17 3:10 PM Page 25
The History in This Program
mong the most prized possessions of the New York Philharmonic Archives are printing
plates for the choral parts to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony used at the 1846 U.S. Premiere. The World Premiere had been given more than 20 years before, in Vienna, directed by the composer himself. However, Philharmonic musicians, led by the
American-born Ureli Corelli Hill, wanted the audience to understand the profound message of Schiller’s text and so created the first English translation of the “Ode to Joy.”
Hill had first encountered the work while on a two-year tour of Europe (1835–37). In
Düsseldorf he met with the city’s music director, Felix Mendelssohn, who had granted
Hill, a violinist, permission to play in two upcoming performances at the Rhine Valley
Music Festival: the premiere of his own St. Paul oratorio, and a concert featuring
Beethoven’s Ninth. It was through Mendelssohn’s rehearsals and performance of the
symphony that Hill became acquainted with the piece. He wrote in his diary that “the
majesty vigor, genius, originality and the lyric effects of the Sinfonie of Beethoven …
surpassed everything I heard, by far. It will be a 100 years before the like can possibly be
hoped to be heard in the United States.”
But it was less than ten years later, on May 20, 1846, that the newly formed New York
Philharmonic, founded by Hill, would perform the work, with massive forces, in a
“Grand Festival Concert” at Castle Garden (now Castle Clinton) in Battery Park. The Orchestra used the occasion to demonstrate how badly the city needed a concert hall and
proceeds were dedicated to the fund for a new hall. The point was made, though unfortunately the English translation was lost in the poor acoustic. Diarist George Templeton Strong wrote that the venue made the Orchestra sound like it was “playing at the
bottom of a well,” the last movement constituting a “confused storm of orchestra and
voices and echoes and reverberations, all stirred up together.” Others, however, felt inspired; The Harbinger wrote: “We went away physically exhausted by the excitement of
listening to so great a work, but unspeakably confirmed in all our highest faith … that
Light will prevail, and that Society will be saved.”
Tickets cost a hefty $2 each, but even with the reported 2,000 audience members attending, not enough was raised for the hall. New York would have to wait another 45
years for Andrew Carnegie to fund its first dedicated concert stage, Carnegie Hall.
A
— The Archives
To learn more, visit the New
York Philharmonic Leon
Levy Digital Archives at
archives.nyphil.org
An excerpt from the choral parts,
in English, used at the U.S. Premiere,
from the New York
Philharmonic Archives
MAY 2017 | 25
05-03 Schoenberg.qxp_Layout 1 4/25/17 3:10 PM Page 29
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125
Ludwig van Beethoven
P
ractically every commentator on music
has had something to say about Ludwig
van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and their
opinions have been so divergent as to make
one wonder if they could possibly have been
speaking of the same piece at all. Not a few
members of early audiences dismissed it as the
raving of a deaf lunatic, and nearly three
decades into the piece’s life a reviewer for the
Boston Atlas tried to explain it away politely as
the genius of the great man upon the
ocean of harmony, without compass which
had so often guided him to his haven of
success; the blind painter touching the
canvas at random.
Beethoven’s contemporary Louis Spohr was
an enthusiast of his colleague’s early works,
but here he drew the line: its first three movements, he wrote, “in spite of some flashes of
genius, are to my mind inferior to all the eight
previous symphonies,” and he found the finale
“so monstrous and tasteless … that I cannot
understand how a genius like Beethoven could
have written it.” And yet, wrote Hector Berlioz,
There is a small minority of musicians,
whose nature inclines to consider carefully
whatever may broaden the scope of art …
and they assert that this work is the most
magnificent expression of Beethoven’s genius. … That is the view I share.
Which is to say that while one may have
mixed feelings when encountering this piece,
it is best to remember that what may be perceived as its flaws might stand as virtues
from someone else’s perspective. Take its
length, which nobody was prepared for in
1824. Beethoven’s Third Symphony had tried
listeners’ patience by clocking in at perhaps
50 minutes back in 1805; now they were faced
with a symphony that might last another 20
minutes beyond that, a scale that proved baffling to many audiences early on. But before
long other symphonists began “scaling up” to
bigger structures than had been previously
imagined. Modern audiences, accustomed to
symphonies of an hour or more (by Bruckner
or Mahler, for example), are unlikely to experience Beethoven’s Ninth as shockingly long;
yet its very dimensions were cause for wonderment when it was new.
IN SHORT
Born: December 16, 1770 (probably, since he
was baptized on the 17th), in Bonn, Germany
Died: March 26, 1827, in Vienna, Austria
Work composed: mostly from 1822 to February 1824, though Beethoven was actively
plotting the piece by 1817 and some of its
musical material was sketched as early as
1812; dedicated to King Frederick Wilhelm III
of Prussia, though Beethoven dedicated
another manuscript copy to the Philharmonic
Society of London, which officially commissioned the piece from him
World premiere: May 7, 1824, at Vienna’s
Kärntnertor Theater, Michael Umlauf,
conductor
New York Philharmonic premiere: May 20,
1846, George Loder, conductor; this marked
the U.S. Premiere
Most recent New York Philharmonic
performance: October 8, 2013, Alan Gilbert,
conductor; Julianna Di Giacomo, soprano;
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano; Russell
Thomas, tenor; Shenyang, bass; Manhattan
School of Music Symphonic Chorus
Estimated duration: ca. 64 minutes
MAY 2017 | 29
05-03 Schoenberg.qxp_Layout 1 4/25/17 3:10 PM Page 30
So was the inclusion of voices in its finale.
Was this a proper symphony at all, or a sort
of oratorio? And what about the voice writing
itself, which Verdi decried (“No one will ever
approach the sublimity of the first movement, but it will be an easy task to write as
badly for voices as is done in the last movement”)? This is certainly no exercise in bel
canto, and many a soloist has veered toward
shipwreck in the craggy contours of the vocal
lines. But misgivings aside, this symphony
does pack a punch, in no small part thanks to
precisely these “problematic” features — the
momentum acquired through its remarkable
length, the revitalizing of its essential sound
with the entrance of the chorus in the finale,
even the drama associated with solo singers
sitting silent for nearly an hour and then
leaping in to wrestle challenging tessituras.
Like all of Beethoven’s symphonies, the
Ninth was conceived as a grand experiment;
but somehow it held onto its stature as a beacon of the avant-garde more firmly than did
its predecessors. Doubtless that has to do
Views and Reviews
Here’s a selection of comments about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony from people whose opinions
one has reason to respect:
“Beethoven is not a man, he is a God! — Like Shakespeare, like Homer, like Michelangelo! — Take
the most intelligent public, let them listen to the greatest work in modern art, the Ninth Symphony, and they will understand nothing.” — Georges Bizet
“At last one begins to realize that here a great man has created his greatest work. I do not recall that ever before it has been received so enthusiastically. Saying this we do not mean to
praise the work — which is beyond praise — but the audience.” — Robert Schumann
“Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony became the mystical goal of all my strange thoughts and desires
about music.” — Richard Wagner
“The alpha and omega is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, marvelous in the first three movements,
very badly set in the last.” — Giuseppe Verdi
“Nothing is superfluous in this stupendous work, not even the Andante, declared by modern
aestheticism to be overlong.” — Claude Debussy
“When I admit that this symphony is an unapproachable masterpiece, I do not mean that I accept as perfect every note, every
phrase, every chord; perhaps even I do not consider it in every detail a model work of art.” — Ralph Vaughan Williams
“Nobody will ever write anything better than this symphony.”
— Sergei Rachmaninoff
“ ‘The Ninth’ is sacred, and it was already sacred when I first heard
it in 1897. I have often wondered why.” — Igor Stravinsky
Beethoven, in an 1824 portrait commissioned from Ferdinand Georg
Waldmüller by the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel
30 | NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
05-03 Schoenberg.qxp_Layout 1 4/25/17 3:10 PM Page 31
partly with the fact that it was Beethoven’s
last symphony. Many, many avant-garde
moments pepper his symphonic production,
but in every case those advances were immediately swept along in a current of more
Beethoven music, always building toward
new advances. Standing at the end of that astonishing sequence of works, the Ninth takes
on a magnified aura of monumentality — of
finality, on one hand, but also of pointing to a
future that Beethoven would not himself address. He could personally show us where the
implications of the Eroica or the Pastoral
might lead, but the path from the Ninth remained an utterly uncharted challenge to future generations of composers.
Instrumentation: two flutes and piccolo,
two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and
contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets,
three trombones, timpani, triangle, cymbals,
bass drum, and strings, plus (in the finale)
four vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor, bass)
and four-part mixed chorus.
The New York Philharmonic Connection
Since performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in its U.S. Premiere (see page 25), the New York
Philharmonic has returned to this work to mark profound historic occasions. Among them:
April 29, 1865
The Philharmonic programs the Ninth to mourn the death of President Abraham Lincoln; the fourth
movement is omitted as being inappropriate to the occasion.
March 13, 1919
To commemorate the end of World War I, the New York Symphony (which would merge with the
New York Philharmonic in 1928) and the Oratorio Society of New York present a “Peace Festival.”
One program, titled “The Brotherhood of Man,” features Walter Damrosch conducting the Ninth.
April 11–12, 1946
Artur Rodziński leads a performance of the symphony, dedicated to the memory of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, before invited delegates of the fledgling United Nations.
December 25, 1989
Members of the Philharmonic, five international orchestras, and three choruses perform the Ninth
under Leonard Bernstein at the Berlin Wall on the eve of its destruction. He changes the word
“Freude” (joy) in the final chorus to “Freiheit” (freedom).
March 27, 1991
Zubin Mehta conducts the Ninth at the United
Nations in a “Concert for World Peace.”
December 31, 1999
Kurt Masur leads the work to ring in the new
millennium.
September 19–21, 24, 2002
Lorin Maazel pairs the Ninth with John Adams’s
On the Transmigration of Souls, in memory of the
victims of September 11, 2001.
Notice in the New York Philharmonic’s program
honoring Abraham Lincoln, April 29, 1865
MAY 2017 | 31
05-03 Schoenberg.qxp_Layout 1 4/25/17 3:10 PM Page 34
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9
Text by Friedrich von Schiller; adapted by Ludwig van Beethoven
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,
und freudenvollere.
O friends, not these tones!
Rather, let us tune our voices in more
pleasant and more joyful song.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Joy, beauteous, godly spark,
Daughter of Elysium,
Drunk with fire, O Heavenly One,
We come unto your sacred shrine.
Your magic once again unites
That which Fashion sternly parted.
All men are made brothers
Where your gentle wings abide.
Wem der große Wurf gelungen,
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja — wer auch nur eine Seele
Sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer’s nie gekonnt, der stehle
Weinend sich aus diesem Bund.
He who has won in that great gamble
Of being friend unto a friend,
He who has found a goodly woman,
Let him add his jubilation too!
Yes — he who can call even one soul
On earth his own!
And he who never has, let him steal
Weeping from this company.
Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brüsten der Natur;
Alle Guten, alle Bösen
Folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
Einen Freund, geprüft im Tod,
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
Und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
All creatures drink of Joy
At Nature’s breasts.
All good, all evil souls
Follow in her rose-strewn wake.
She gave us kisses and vines,
A friend who has proved faithful
even in death.
Lust was given to the Serpent,
And the Cherub stands before God.
Froh wie seine Sonnen fliegen
Durch des Himmels prächt’gen Plan,
Laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,
Freudig wie ein Held zum Siegen.
As joyously as His suns fly
Across the glorious landscape of the heavens,
Brothers, follow your appointed course,
Gladly, like a hero to the conquest.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
34 | NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC
Joy, beauteous, godly spark,
Daughter of Elysium,
Drunk with fire, O Heavenly One,
We come unto your sacred shrine.
05-03 Schoenberg.qxp_Layout 1 4/25/17 3:10 PM Page 35
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Your magic once again unites
That which Fashion sternly parted.
All men are made brothers
Where your gentle wings abide.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder — überm Sternenzelt
Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Be embraced, ye Millions!
This kiss to the whole world!
Brothers — beyond the canopy of the stars
Surely a loving Father dwells.
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
Such’ ihn überm Sternenzelt!
Über Sternen muß er wohnen.
Do you fall headlong, ye Millions?
Have you any sense of the Creator, World?
Seek Him above the canopy of the stars!
Surely he dwells beyond the stars.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.
Joy, beauteous, godly spark,
Daughter of Elysium,
Drunk with fire, O Heavenly One,
We come unto your sacred shrine.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Be embraced, ye Millions!
This kiss to the whole world!
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
Such’ ihn überm Sternenzelt!
Brüder — überm Sternenzelt
Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Do you fall headlong, ye Millions?
Have you any sense of the Creator, World?
Seek Him above the canopy of the stars!
Brothers — beyond the canopy of the stars
Surely a loving Father dwells.
Freude, Tochter aus Elysium!
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.
Joy, Daughter of Elysium!
Your magic once again unites
That which Fashion sternly parted.
All men are made brothers
Where your gentle wings abide.
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!
Brüder — überm Sternenzelt
Muß ein lieber Vater wohnen.
Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium!
Freude, schöner Götterfunken!
Be embraced, ye Millions!
This kiss to the whole world!
Brothers — beyond the canopy of the stars
Surely a loving Father dwells.
Joy, beauteous, godly spark,
Daughter of Elysium!
Joy, beauteous, godly spark!
— Translation by Donna Hewitt
© 1979 Boston Symphony Orchestra
MAY 2017 | 35