Program Notes

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

born: December 1770 in Bonn, Germany died: March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria

Symphony No. 9 in D Minor

“Choral,” Opus 125

composed: 1822-4 premiere: May 7, 1824 in Vienna

The Journey to the Ninth Symphony

Beethoven’s Ninth and final Symphony (“Choral”) represents, on a number of levels, a summit of the immortal composer’s artistic life. The Ninth is by far the most epic of Beethoven’s symphonies, both in terms of length and performing forces. The revolutionary introduction of vocal soloists and chorus in the finale was a bold masterstroke that forever expanded the potential of symphonic expression. Richard Wagner hailed the Beethoven Ninth as:

the redemption of Music from out her own peculiar element into the realm of universal art. It is the human evangel of the art of the future. Beyond it no forward step is possible; for upon it the perfect artwork of the future alone can follow, the universal drama to which Beethoven has forged for us the key.

The text of the Symphony’s finale, based upon the 1785 “Ode to Joy” (“An die Freude”) by the great German poet Friedrich Schiller, held a lifelong attraction for the composer. Beethoven first became acquainted with Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” when the composer was a student in his native Bonn. In his 1790 Cantata on the Accession of Emperor Leopold II, Beethoven briefly quotes Schiller’s Ode. Evidence suggests that a young Beethoven may have even set the text of Schiller’s poem to music in the 1790s — but if the song did exist, it has been forever lost.

The beloved melodic setting of the “Ode to Joy” itself was also the product of an extended genesis. A version of the melody first appears in a song Beethoven composed in the mid-1790s, entitled “Gegenliebe” (“Mutual Love”), based on a poem by Gottfried August Bürger. An even more startling premonition of the Ninth Symphony may be found in Beethoven’s 1808 Fantasia for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Op. 80. In that work, the melody — in this case, a setting of words by Christoph Kuffner — receives a treatment quite similar in many ways to that found in the “Choral” Symphony. And the sublime writing for the vocal soloists and chorus in the final scene of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, looks forward to the last movement of the Ninth.

Although the notion of presenting Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” in a symphonic context seems to have been on the composer’s mind for several years, it was not until the spring of 1823 that Beethoven was finally able to focus his attention upon this landmark work. Beethoven completed his Ninth Symphony the following January.

It is not surprising that Beethoven struggled with the revolutionary finale of his Ninth Symphony. Indeed, as late as the summer of 1823, he considered ending his Symphony in traditional fashion with a purely instrumental fourth movement. Even after Beethoven made the final decision to employ Schiller’s text, the question remained of how to effect the appropriate transition to this new and daring path.

“I’ve got it!”

And then one day (according to the composer’s friend and biographer, Anton Schindler), Beethoven exclaimed: “I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” He had sketched the following words: “Let us sing the song of the immortal Schiller,” to be sung by the basses of the chorus, with the soprano then presenting Schiller’s Ode. Beethoven ultimately modified the opening text to read: “O friends, not these sounds! Let us sing songs that are more cheerful and full of joy!” Both these lines, and the beginning of Schiller’s Ode, are given to the solo bass.

The premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony took place at the Vienna Kärnthnerthor Theater on May 7, 1824. By this stage of his life, the composer’s hearing had deteriorated to such an extent that conducting the performance was out of the question. Instead, Michael Umlauf led the premiere. But all the while, Beethoven was at Umlauf’s side, attempting to direct the tempos for the various movements.

At the conclusion of the performance, the audience erupted with a spirited ovation. Caroline Unger was the contralto soloist at the premiere. More than four decades later, Unger met with the British music writer, Sir George Grove, who recounted her description of the events at the concert:

The master, though placed in the midst of this confluence of music, heard nothing of it at all and was not even sensible of the applause of the audience at the end of his great work, but continued standing with his back to the audience, and beating the time, till Fräulein Unger, who had sung the contralto part, turned him, or induced him to turn round and face the people, who were still clapping their hands, and giving way to the greatest demonstrations of pleasure. His turning round, and the sudden conviction thereby forced upon everybody that he had not done so before, because he could not hear what was going on, acted like an electric shock on all present, and a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration followed, which was repeated again and again, and seemed as if it would never end.

The Ninth Symphony is in four movements. The first (Allegro ma non troppo) opens with the furtive introduction of a twonote descending motif, soon thundered fortissimo by the orchestra. The winds also hint at the immortal “Ode to Joy” theme with a sweet ascending and descending theme. The movement proceeds to a fierce resolution. The scherzo (Molto vivace) appears as the Symphony’s second (rather than the traditional third) movement. Once again, a descending two-note motif provides the thematic nucleus. In the central trio, the winds introduce a flowing theme that is another precursor to the “Ode to Joy” melody. The beautiful slow-tempo movement (Adagio molto e cantabile) is based upon two themes, both derived from a descending two-note motif. In the finale (Presto) the principal themes from the first three movements return, only to be rejected in turn by the orchestra. Finally, the orchestra sings the immortal “Ode to Joy” melody. The bass heralds the entrance of the vocal soloists and chorus. A series of variations on the melody culminates in the orchestra’s Prestissimo race to the finish.

Portrait of Friedrich Schiller by Ludovike Simanowiz (1794)