aka "Bernard Haitink (1929-2021), part 3"
[Now updated to include the first three movements of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, plus a complete performance (from Tokyo!), with some additional additions still to come]
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; St. Hedwig's Cathedral Choir, Berlin Philharmonic, Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Dec. 1957-Apr. 1958
Franz Crass, bass; Vienna Singverein, Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. Live performance from the Vienna Musikvereinsaal, in the Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival), June 6, 1960
René Pape, bass; New York Choral Artists, New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur, cond. Live performance from Avery Fisher Hall, Dec. 31, 1999
Martti Talvela, bass; Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, cond. Decca, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Vienna Singverein, Dec. 8-12, 1965
by Ken
Some you have seen the not-yet-a-post version of this maybe-still-not-really-much-of-a-post, containing just the five audio files of the Finale of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony as conducted by Bernard Haitink and Eugen Jochum, as promised in Part 2 of this series.
LET'S GET RIGHT TO THOSE FIVE PERFORMANCES --
THEN WE'VE GOT SOME NEW BUSINESS TO TEND TO
You've had the tease for the Finale, at the top of the post (I hope you enjoyed those four fairly different but all luscious performances!). Now it's time to hear that great bass solo in context.
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125:
iv. Finale: Presto -- Allegro assai -- etc.
Hélène Fahrni (s), Gusta Hammer (c), Walther Ludwig (t), Rudolf Watzke (bs); Hamburg Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Eugen Jochum, cond. Telefunken, recorded June 7-8, 1938
Liselotte Rebmann (s), Anna Reynolds (ms), Anton de Ridder (t), Gerd Feldhoff (b); Netherlands Radio Chorus, Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Eugen Jochum, cond. Philips, recorded in the Concertgebouw, June 1969
Kiri Te Kanawa (s), Julia Hamari (ms), Stuart Burrows (t), Robert Holl (bs); London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Eugen Jochum, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studios, 1978-79
Janet Price (s), Birgit Finnilä (c), Horst R. Laubenthal (t), Marius Rintzler (bs-b); Concertgebouw Chorus and Orchestra (Amsterdam), Bernard Haitink, cond. Philips, recorded live in the Concertgebouw, October 1980
Twyla Robinson (s), Karen Cargill (ms), John MacMaster (t), Gerald Finley (bs-b); London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Bernard Haitink, cond. LSO Live, recorded live in the Barbican, Apr. 29-30, 2005
INCLUSIVITY NOTE (including some still-too-quick notes on the performances): I have in LP but not digital form one more Ninth apiece by Jochum (1902-1987) and Haitink (1929-2021): Jochum's second, from November-December 1952, for DG, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, of which he'd been founding music director just three years earlier (I love its original-issue format, on two LPs -- a 10-incher containing the first two movements and a 12-incher containing the third and fourth); and Haitink's first, for Philips, from May 1976, part of the complete Beethoven symphony cycle he did with the London Philharmonic. Nor can I swear that there are no others. In any case, I think we can make do with what we've got.
And while I still need to rehear all the performances -- well, actually, hear one of them for the first time -- the two I went for first, the two I've loved for a long time, are the two Concertgebouw performances. It doesn't hurt that the Concertgebouw the orchestra and the Concertgebouw the building of that era were just about the perfect orchestra and the perfect venue for performing this monumental piece. We have here two conductors in such complete control of the it that, while inspiring their assembled forces, they let it unfold with an unforced rightness that allow this one-of-a-kind creation to reach its one-of-a-kind culmination with the full impact of a great performance.
OKAY, NOW TO THE NEW BUSINESS: SINCE THE --
BEETHOVEN NINTH IS PROBABLY THE GREATEST AND . . .
. . . most life-encompassing piece of music I know, and even though the Finale is its most obviously remarkable and unexpected movement, I don't see how we can spend time with the Finale without hearing how we arrive there. Note that I don't describe the Finale as the symphony's "greatest" movement, for the simple reason that each of the four completely pulls its own weight.
This is really, really important. And I mean really important. In a sense, it's as if the four movements come from separate imaginative worlds, and I think the point is if anything underscored by the little stroll down Ninth Symphony Memory Lane which Beethoven gives us at the start of the Finale. I'm not suggesting, by the way, that the four movements are not connected, just that making the connection among these four realms of the imagination is kind of the symphony's agenda for the listener. This is, by the way, the very issue that we have recently bumped up against in contemplating Schubert's Gastein Piano Sonata ("Do we dare let Schubert's Gastein Sonata nudge us into the question of what we're looking for in music?"), with which we're by no means finished) and Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony (ditto, I mean about our being by no means finished with it).
[Also by the way, if I did have to pick a movement of the Ninth that -- how shall I say this? -- moves me the most, I think that would have to be the Adagio. And that was in fact a gradual thing, which developed over an extended period of living with the piece.]
Anyway, back to the announced need to fill in the blanks, which is to say to hear the first three movements of the Ninth. Since it's a piece we've come back to on multiple occasions here at Sunday Classics, not surprisingly we've got the other movements ready-to-go in the SC Archive, so I can slip them in without having to think about making new audio files. I"m still hoping to have a bit more to say about the Haitink and Jochum performances (once I've had a chance to hear them properly), but for now let's just keep the thing moving.
SO THEN, BACK TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SYMPHONY
[Now updated to include the first three movements of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, plus a complete performance (from Tokyo!), with some additional additions still to come]
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; St. Hedwig's Cathedral Choir, Berlin Philharmonic, Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Dec. 1957-Apr. 1958
Franz Crass, bass; Vienna Singverein, Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. Live performance from the Vienna Musikvereinsaal, in the Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival), June 6, 1960
René Pape, bass; New York Choral Artists, New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur, cond. Live performance from Avery Fisher Hall, Dec. 31, 1999
Martti Talvela, bass; Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, cond. Decca, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Vienna Singverein, Dec. 8-12, 1965
by Ken
Some you have seen the not-yet-a-post version of this maybe-still-not-really-much-of-a-post, containing just the five audio files of the Finale of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony as conducted by Bernard Haitink and Eugen Jochum, as promised in Part 2 of this series.
The series: Bernard Haitink (1929-2021)
Part 1 -- Haitink conducts Handel, assorted Brahms, assorted Shostakovich, very assorted Mahler, Wagner (from Act II of Siegfried), and Beethoven (Finale of Symphony No. 9)
Part 2 -- Haitink and Jochum conduct Bruckner: Symphony No. 7: ii. Adagio; and Haitink, Jochum, and van Beinum conduct Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde: i. "Das Trinklied von Jammer der Erde" and vi. "Der Abschied" (both with "related" perforrmances involving other participants)
Part 3 -- multiple Haitink and Jochum performances of the Finale of Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
LET'S GET RIGHT TO THOSE FIVE PERFORMANCES --
THEN WE'VE GOT SOME NEW BUSINESS TO TEND TO
You've had the tease for the Finale, at the top of the post (I hope you enjoyed those four fairly different but all luscious performances!). Now it's time to hear that great bass solo in context.
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125:
iv. Finale: Presto -- Allegro assai -- etc.
A note on the sung texts: I had this idea of preparing a version of the text -- which as we all know is mostly Beethoven's edited version of Schiller's Ode to Joy with some additions of his own, notably the opening bass recitative -- that would clue the reader-listener in to what's-actually-being-sung-where in the movement. It might yet happen, but for now Steven Ledbetter's very nice straight translation has been reproduced in a number of locations, including here.
Hélène Fahrni (s), Gusta Hammer (c), Walther Ludwig (t), Rudolf Watzke (bs); Hamburg Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Eugen Jochum, cond. Telefunken, recorded June 7-8, 1938
Liselotte Rebmann (s), Anna Reynolds (ms), Anton de Ridder (t), Gerd Feldhoff (b); Netherlands Radio Chorus, Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Eugen Jochum, cond. Philips, recorded in the Concertgebouw, June 1969
Kiri Te Kanawa (s), Julia Hamari (ms), Stuart Burrows (t), Robert Holl (bs); London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Eugen Jochum, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studios, 1978-79
Janet Price (s), Birgit Finnilä (c), Horst R. Laubenthal (t), Marius Rintzler (bs-b); Concertgebouw Chorus and Orchestra (Amsterdam), Bernard Haitink, cond. Philips, recorded live in the Concertgebouw, October 1980
Twyla Robinson (s), Karen Cargill (ms), John MacMaster (t), Gerald Finley (bs-b); London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Bernard Haitink, cond. LSO Live, recorded live in the Barbican, Apr. 29-30, 2005
INCLUSIVITY NOTE (including some still-too-quick notes on the performances): I have in LP but not digital form one more Ninth apiece by Jochum (1902-1987) and Haitink (1929-2021): Jochum's second, from November-December 1952, for DG, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, of which he'd been founding music director just three years earlier (I love its original-issue format, on two LPs -- a 10-incher containing the first two movements and a 12-incher containing the third and fourth); and Haitink's first, for Philips, from May 1976, part of the complete Beethoven symphony cycle he did with the London Philharmonic. Nor can I swear that there are no others. In any case, I think we can make do with what we've got.
And while I still need to rehear all the performances -- well, actually, hear one of them for the first time -- the two I went for first, the two I've loved for a long time, are the two Concertgebouw performances. It doesn't hurt that the Concertgebouw the orchestra and the Concertgebouw the building of that era were just about the perfect orchestra and the perfect venue for performing this monumental piece. We have here two conductors in such complete control of the it that, while inspiring their assembled forces, they let it unfold with an unforced rightness that allow this one-of-a-kind creation to reach its one-of-a-kind culmination with the full impact of a great performance.
OKAY, NOW TO THE NEW BUSINESS: SINCE THE --
BEETHOVEN NINTH IS PROBABLY THE GREATEST AND . . .
. . . most life-encompassing piece of music I know, and even though the Finale is its most obviously remarkable and unexpected movement, I don't see how we can spend time with the Finale without hearing how we arrive there. Note that I don't describe the Finale as the symphony's "greatest" movement, for the simple reason that each of the four completely pulls its own weight.
This is really, really important. And I mean really important. In a sense, it's as if the four movements come from separate imaginative worlds, and I think the point is if anything underscored by the little stroll down Ninth Symphony Memory Lane which Beethoven gives us at the start of the Finale. I'm not suggesting, by the way, that the four movements are not connected, just that making the connection among these four realms of the imagination is kind of the symphony's agenda for the listener. This is, by the way, the very issue that we have recently bumped up against in contemplating Schubert's Gastein Piano Sonata ("Do we dare let Schubert's Gastein Sonata nudge us into the question of what we're looking for in music?"), with which we're by no means finished) and Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony (ditto, I mean about our being by no means finished with it).
[Also by the way, if I did have to pick a movement of the Ninth that -- how shall I say this? -- moves me the most, I think that would have to be the Adagio. And that was in fact a gradual thing, which developed over an extended period of living with the piece.]
Anyway, back to the announced need to fill in the blanks, which is to say to hear the first three movements of the Ninth. Since it's a piece we've come back to on multiple occasions here at Sunday Classics, not surprisingly we've got the other movements ready-to-go in the SC Archive, so I can slip them in without having to think about making new audio files. I"m still hoping to have a bit more to say about the Haitink and Jochum performances (once I've had a chance to hear them properly), but for now let's just keep the thing moving.
SO THEN, BACK TO THE BEGINNING OF THE SYMPHONY
Giulini in his later years: With nothing left to prove, a deeply felt Ninth
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125:
i. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
ii. Scherzo: Molto vivace
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. BBC Legends, recorded live in the Royal Albert Hall, Sept. 13, 1985
Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. Testament, recorded live in the Royal Festival Hall, Nov. 15, 1957
iii. Adagio molto e cantabile
Berlin Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. DG, recorded in the Philharmonie, Feb. 1989 and Feb. 1990
Tonhalle Orchestra (Zürich), David Zinman, cond. Arte Nova, recorded in the Tonhalle, Dec. 12 and 14, 1998
Now, about the performances, which have simply been lifted out of the SCArchive, having been chosen for previous posts for reasons we may need to get into. I would have to go back to the original post for which the audio clips containing the first two movements were made to jog my memory of why they were done this way. But I'm actually plesed to find them done this way, because this gives us an immediate exercise in contemplating how the movements of the Beethoven Ninth fit together.
That said, I had a lovely time rehearing the two performances -- both live, you'll note. I really love the Tennstedt, a vivid demonstration of the deep musical understanding that made him such an important presence in the too-short time when he finally reached international attention. (Of course you could look at it the other way: that all those years he worked in relative obscurity played a large role in making him ready for international attention when it came.) The performance unfolds with a beautiful sense of natural flow combined with unforced momentum. And while the cavernous acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall often lessen the pleasure I take in recordings made there, I thought the spatial proportions here sound quite beautiful.
The Klemperer performance has plenty of momentum too (and remember, this is a live recording, not the studio recording EMI made at the same time), of a perhaps darker, more grimly determined sort.
As for the Giulini-DG Ninth, isn't that Adagio radiant? I've loved this Ninth since it was released, and thought of trying to dig the little "in brief" review I did for the Sunday NY Times out of their archive -- but as a nonsubscriber didn't want to face being asked to pay for the damned thing, my own crappy little piece of writing. In that late stage of CMG's career he didn't seem to have felt a need to prove anything to anyone and made a number of deeply -- and far from cheerfully -- felt recordings, and I mean deeply felt in a by-no-means-cheerful way.
I think the Zinman Adagio gives us a bit of contrast, reminding us that there's a wide range of ways of feeling this sublime movement.
UPDATE: What the heck? Let's go back to the Archive!
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125:
iv. Finale: Presto -- Allegro assai -- etc.
Irmgard Seefried (s), Maureen Forrester (c), Ernst Häfliger (t), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b); St. Hedwig's Cathedral Choir, Berlin Philharmonic, Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Dec. 1957-Apr. 1958
Jessye Norman (s), Brigitte Fassbaender (ms), Plácido Domingo (t), Walter Berry (bs-b); Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Vienna Musikverein, November 1980
Elisabeth Söderström (s), Regina Resnik (ms), Jon Vickers (t), David Ward (bs-b); London Bach Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. Westminster-MCA-DG, recorded in Walthamstow Assembly Hall, June 1962
And another performance with Jon Vickers as tenor soloist:
Lucia Popp (s), Elena Obraztsova (ms), Jon Vickers (t), Martti Talvela (bs); Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded in the Masonic Auditorium, Cleveland, Oct. 13-15, 1978
THESE CLIPS WERE MADE TO ACCOMPANY A
CLOSE-UP OF THE JOY-FUELED TENOR SOLO
(Bet you can't guess which tenor I liked best!)
Mind you, I love what all our guys are doing here, but there's one whose passion for promoting joy among mankind sounds not at all abstract but deeply physical.
From the Finale: Tenor solo, "Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen" ("As joyously as His suns fly")
Jon Vickers, tenor; London Bach Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. Westminster-MCA-DG, recorded in Walthamstow Assembly Hall, June 1962
Jon Vickers, tenor; Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded in the Masonic Auditorium, Cleveland, Oct. 13-15, 1978
Ernst Häfliger, tenor; St. Hedwig's Cathedral Choir, Berlin Philharmonic, Ferenc Fricsay, cond. DG, recorded in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Dec. 1957-Apr. 1958
Plácido Domingo, tenor; Vienna State Opera Concert Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Vienna Musikverein, November 1980
Fritz Wunderlich, tenor; Vienna Singverein, Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. Live performance from the Vienna Musikvereinsaal, in the Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival), June 7, 1960
[FYI: Those clips of the bass solo we heard at the top of the post were also lifted straight out of the Archive.]
NOW, AS PROMISED, HERE'S ALL OF BEETHOVEN 9
You'll note that the broadcast performance we're hearing comes to us (originally) from Japan!
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125:
Funny how Maestro Böhm keeps finding his way into these posts!
i. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
ii. Scherzo: Molto vivace
iii. Adagio molto e cantabile
iv. Finale: Presto -- Allegro assai -- etc.
[ii. at 16:26; iii. at 28:05; iv. at 44:41] Elisabeth Grümmer (s), Christa Ludwig (ms), James King (t), Walter Berry (bs-b); Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance from the Nissei Theater, Tokyo, Nov. 7, 1963
HMM, THIS MAY BE THIS WEEK'S POST!
I was thinking of this as finishing up some business left over from last week so we can move on, but maybe this is "the" post -- though it's still in need of some filling in. Stay tuned.
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