In which we chart our course from Beethoven's visionary symphonic adagio to the great symphonic adagios of Bruckner and Mahler

(And we run smack into the dread Ninth Symphony snafu)

Maestro Furtwängler will get us from Beethoven's sublime symphonic adagio to Bruckner; then Carlo Maria Giulini will carry us on to Mahler.

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125:
iii. Adagio molto e cantabile


Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. EMI, recorded live in the Festspielhaus, July 29, 1951

Berlin Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. DG, recorded in the Philharmonie, Feb. 1989 & Feb. 1990

by Ken

Last week, you may recall, "Our ongoing Seiji Ozawa remembrance sidetracked me into some aural pondering of the symphonic adagio." I'm afraid we're not going to get much farther today than scouting the route, but that still leaves us in for some remarkable music.

You'll note that in last week's post I've upgraded the audio clip of the 1951 Furtwängler Beethoven Ninth, and this week we've heard it again, paired with Carlo Maria Giulini's performance, and that duo will escort us to -- in fact, all the way through -- Anton Bruckner's symphonic adagio-ing, to his final Adagio, the last movement he composed, the Adagio of his Ninth Symphony, whose intended finale he ran out of either time or inspiration to "complete."

The sound of Furtwängler's 1944 Bruckner 9 is less happy even than that of his 1951 Beethoven 9 [AFTERTHOUGHT: however, the upgraded Beethoven 9 audio clip sure sounds better (how 'bout those timpani?), and for that matter the Bruckner 9 clip sounds a lot better than I expected -- Ed.], but it's good enough, and will have to do, since it's the only Bruckner 9 he left us. And if there's one thing classical-music lovers generally agree on (there aren't many!), it's that the Furtwängler Bruckner 9 is one of the greatest and least dispensable recordings we have. That said, Carlo Maria Giulini's Bruckner 9 seems to me of comparable stature. In the fullness of his long career, Maestro G. had the opportunity to show us how deep and darkly perceiving an artist he was -- I've described this performance as "dripping blood."

Finally for this week, Maestro Furtwängler not being a Mahler guy, Maestro Giulini will lead us the final step to Mahler, represented by a movement I don't think is often thought of as a "symphonic adagio" -- only it is, isn't it?


LISTENING TO FURTWÄNGLER'S AND GIULINI'S
PERFORMANCES OF THE ADAGIO OF BRUCKNER 9 . . .

Our ongoing Seiji Ozawa remembrance sidetracked me into some aural ponderingof the symphonic adagio

UPDATE: Now with a better clip of the Adagio of the Furtwängler Beethoven Ninth

Carlo Maria Giulini (1914-2005) conducting the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, c1980 [photo: Los Angeles Philharmonic Archives]

"Adagio A"

Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI-Testament, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Musikverein, Dec. 8-10, 1974

"Adagio B"

Berlin Philharmonic, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. DG, recorded in the Philharmonie, Feb. 1989 & Feb. 1990

by Ken

I don't expect that everyone will recognize one of these two movements, while I expect that most everyone will recognize the other, which is one of the core chunks of Western music from the 19th century forward. I hope that most listeners will hear in both of the above clips performances of attention-grabbing splendor. This performance of the lesser-known piece, and indeed of the symphony it comes from, made me think about the piece itself.

Later we're going to hear Giulini's performance of this movement alongside two other, really wonderful performances -- so good that it almost pains me to point out that they yield to Giulini's achievement in applying, from the outset, such an irresistible grabbing quality, a personal connection that animates a sense of the vitality and urgency of the piece which makes me hear its direct lineage from our other demonstration Adagio.


FIRST OFF, WHAT IS AN ADAGIO?

It's not easy to pin down, but attempts to do so often offer by way of example --

Adagio in G minor for organ and strings (arr. Giazoto)


David Bell, organ; Léon Spierer, violin; Berlin Philharmonic, Her­bert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded in the Kammer­musik­saal of the Philharmonie, Sept. 30, 1983

Interim post: The proper post is in its final stages -- I got caught up in what I'm calling "Tales of a 'tail' "

I GUESS THIS COULD BE THOUGHT OF AS "Part 2b-ii"
OF OUR ONGOING SEIJI OZAWA REMEMBERANCE

Laurence Thorstenberg, English horn; Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa, cond.

by Ken

What we hear (and see!) above is the haunting English-horn solo that sets us in the "Chambre de Marguerite" -- the bedchamber of the now-"fallen" Marguerite, accused of murdering her mother by gradual poisoning and abandoned by Faust, of Part IV of Berlioz's Damnation of Faust. As we will see, or rather hear, however, abandoned though she may be, she spends all her days waiting by the window or outside her house waiting for him to return.

BERLIOZ: The Damnation of Faust, Op. 24: Part IV,
romance, Marguerite, "D'amour l'ardente flamme"

Rita Gorr, mezzo-soprano; Robert Casier, English horn; Orchestra of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra (Paris), André Cluytens, cond. EMI, recorded in the Salle Wagram, Oct. 5-10, 1959

Maria Callas, soprano; Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris, Georges Prêtre, cond. EMI, recorded in the Salle Wagram, May 2-8, 1963


SPOILER ALERT

Seiji Ozawa (1935-2024)Part 2b: It takes a vibrant imagination to enter fully Berlioz's and Mahler's worlds

"Romeo, trembling with an anxious joy, reveals himself to Juliet."

From Part I, the Prologue to Berlioz's R&J "dramatic symphony"

SMALL CHORUS: The feast is concluded,
and when all noise dies down,
under the arches one hears
weary dancers grow more distant, singing.
Alas! -- and Romeo sighs,
for he has had to leave Juliet! --
Suddenly, in order to breathe again
that air that she breathes,
he vaults over the garden walls.
Already on her balcony the pale Juliet appears --
and believing herself alone until daybreak
confides to the night her love.
[1:28] Romeo, trembling with an anxious joy,
reveals himself to Juliet,
and from his heart fires burst forth in their turn.

New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
[NOTE: For the immediately following alto-solo "strophes" (stanzas), "Premiers transports que nul n'oublie," scroll down a ways. -- Ed.]

From Part III: "Où sont-ils maintenant?" ("Where are they now?")

CHORUS OF CAPULETS AND MONTAGUES:
Ah! what a frightful mystery!
[0:30] Récit., Father Laurence, "Je vais dévoiler le mystère"
I am going to unveil the mystery.
This corpse, this was the husband of Juliet.
Do you see that body laid out on the ground?
That was the wife, alas!, of Romeo.
It's I who had married them.
BOTH CHORUSES: Married?
FATHER LAURENCE: Yes, I must confess it.
I saw in it a salutary marker
of a future friendship between your two houses.
BOTH CHORUSES: Friends of the Montagues/Capulets, us!
We curse them!
FATHER LAURENCE: But you've restarted the war between families!
To flee another marriage, the unhappy girl came to find me.
"You alone," she cried, "would be able to save me!
There's nothing more for me but to die!"
In this extreme peril
I had her take, in order to ward off fate,
a potion, which that same evening
lent her the pallor and cold of death.
BOTH CHORUSES: A potion!
FATHER LAURENCE: And I came without fear
here to rescue her.
But Romeo, deceived,
to the pregnant funeral
had arrived ahead of me -- to die
on the body of of his beloved;
and promptly on her awakening
Juliet, informed
of this death that he bears in his devastated breast,
with Romeo's sword had armed herself against herself
and passed into eternity
when I appeared -- there is the whole truth.
BOTH CHORUSES: Married!
[3:27] Air, Father Laurence, "Pauvres enfants, que je pleure"
Poor children, for whom I weep,
fallen together before your time,
on your somber resting place will come to weep.
Great through you in history,
Verona one day, without thinking about it,
will have its sorrow and its glory
solely in the memory of you.

[6:19] Where are they now, those fierce enemies?
Capulets, Montagues! Come, come, touch,
hatred in your hearts, insults in your mouth,
these pale lovers, barbarians, approach!
God punishes you in your tendernesses.
His chastisements, his avenging thunderbolts
hold the secret of our terrors.
Listen to his voice which thunders:
so that on high My vengeance will pardon you,
forget, forget your own furies!

José van Dam (bs-b), Father Laurence; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975

by Ken

You could say we're getting ahead of ourselves, jumping from Part I, the Prologue, all the way to the Finale of Berlioz's "dramatic symphony" Roméo et Juliette, or you could say we're just catching up with the second of the four "musical talking points" I outlined for our remembrance of Seiji Ozawa, which we heard -- most recently in last week's Part 2a of our remembrance of Seiji Ozawa ("Thinking big musically doesn't preclude making every moment fully alive") -- so eloquently sung by the great Belgian bass-baritone José van Dam. It's "The Oath" that Father Laurence (promoted by Berlioz from "friar" to "father," we notice) pretty much shoves down the vituperating throats of the once-again-warring houses of Capulet and Montague, in the shock of the deaths of their precious children, Juliet and Romeo. We'll be rehearing "The Oath," "Jurez donc par l'auguste symbole" ("Swear then, by the august symbol"), shortly, when we work our way through the Finale of Berlioz's R&J.


AS WE LEARNED FROM THE CONVERSATIONS WITH SEIJI
IN THE BERLIN PHILHARMONIC'S DIGITAL CONCERT HALL --