Under the baton of the young Finnish conductor and cellist Klaus Mäkelä, the Oslo Philharmonic Choir and Orcestra, and the soloists Lauren Fagan (soprano), Hanna Hipp (mezzo-soprano), Tuomas Katajala (tenor) and Shenyang (bass-baritone) perform Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125. Recorded at Oslo konserthus, on January 4, 2019.
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Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125, byname the Choral Symphony, orchestral work in four movements by Ludwig van Beethoven, remarkable in its day not only for its grandness of scale but especially for its final movement, which includes a full chorus and vocal soloists who sing a setting of Friedrich Schiller's poem "An die Freude" ("Ode to Joy"). The work was Beethoven's final complete symphony, and it represents an important stylistic bridge between the Classical and Romantic periods of Western music history. Symphony No.9 premiered on May 7, 1824, in Vienna, to an overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience, and it is widely viewed as Beethoven's greatest composition.
Beethoven's Symphony No.9 was ultimately more than three decades in the making. Schiller's popular "Ode to Joy" was published in 1785, and it is possible that Beethoven made his first of multiple attempts to set it to music in the early 1790s. He clearly revisited the poem in 1808 and 1811, as his notebooks include numerous remarks regarding possible settings. In 1812 Beethoven determined to place his setting of "Ode to Joy" within a grand symphony.
Ten more years passed before that symphony's completion, and during that time Beethoven agonized over the composition's every note. His notebooks indicate that he considered and rejected more than 200 different versions of the "Ode to Joy" theme alone. When he finally finished the work, he offered to the public a radically new creation that was part symphony and part oratorio – a hybrid that proved puzzling to less-adventuresome listeners. Some knowledgeable contemporaries declared that Beethoven had no understanding of how to write for voices; others wondered why there were voices in a symphony at all.
The story of the premiere of Symphony No.9 is widely told and disputed. Beethoven had steadily lost his hearing during the course of the symphony's composition, and by the time of its premiere he was profoundly deaf. Although he appeared onstage as the general director of the performance, kapellmeister Michael Umlauf actually led the orchestra with the conductor's baton, taking tempo cues from Beethoven. According to one account of the event, the audience applauded thunderously at the conclusion of the performance, but Beethoven, unable to hear the response, continued to face the chorus and orchestra; a singer finally turned him around so that he could see evidence of the affirmation that resounded throughout the hall. Other accounts maintain that the dramatic incident occurred at the end of the second movement scherzo. (At the time, it was common for audiences to applaud between movements.) Whenever the applause occurred, that it passed unnoticed by Beethoven makes clear that he never heard a note of his magnificent composition outside his own imagination.
Symphony No.9 broke many patterns of the Classical style of Western music to foreshadow the monolithic works of Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner, and other composers of the later Romantic era. Its orchestra was unusually large, and its length – more than an hour – was extraordinary. The inclusion of a chorus, moreover, in a genre that was understood to be exclusively instrumental, was thoroughly unorthodox. The formal structure of the movements, while generally adhering to Classical models, also charted new territory. For example, the first movement, although in Classical sonata form, confounds listeners first by rising to a fortissimo climax in the harmonically unstable exposition section and then by delaying a return to the home key. The scherzo, with all its propulsive energy, is placed as the second movement, rather than the customary third, and the third movement is a mostly restful, almost prayerful adagio. The last movement builds from a gentle beginning into a brazen finale, while recalling some of the themes from earlier movements; once the "Ode to Joy" theme arrives, the musical form essentially becomes that of variations within a broader sonata-form structure.
Despite some sharp initial critique of the work, Symphony No.9 has withstood the test of time and, indeed, has made its mark. In the world of popular culture, the symphony's menacing second movement in brisk waltz time provided a backdrop for some of the most tense and twisted moments in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's psycho-thriller novel A Clockwork Orange (1962). The choral fourth movement accompanies a triumphant soccer (football) scene in Peter Weir's film Dead Poets Society (1989). In the realm of technology, the audio capacity of the compact disc was set at 74 minutes in the early 1980s, purportedly to accommodate a complete recording of Beethoven's Symphony No.9.
Symphony No.9 has also been used to mark monumental public events, among the most moving of which took place on Christmas Day 1989 in Berlin. There, in the first concert since the demolition of the Berlin Wall just a few weeks earlier, American conductor Leonard Bernstein led a group of musicians from both the eastern and western sides of the city in a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No.9 with a small but significant alteration: in the "Ode to Joy" the word Freude was replaced with Freiheit ("freedom"). A performance of the choral finale of the symphony – with simultaneous global participation via satellite – brought the opening ceremony of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, to a powerful close.
Source: Betsy Schwarm (britannica.com)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
♪ Symphony No.9 in D minor "Choral", Op.125 (1822-1824)
i. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestroso
ii. Scherzo: Molto vivace
iii. Adagio molto e cantabile
iv. Presto – Allegro ma non troppo – Vivace – Adagio cantabile
Lauren Fagan, soprano
Hanna Hipp, mezzo-soprano
Tuomas Katajala, tenor
Shenyang, bass-baritone
Oslo Philharmonic Choir (conductor: Øystein Fevang)
Oslo Philharmonic Orcestra
Conductor: Klaus Mäkelä
Sound production: NRK
Music Producer: Krzysztof Drab
Recording engineers: Elisabeth Sommernes and Marit Askeland
Video production: Trippel-M Levende Bilder
Director: Patrick Bakkland Gjerde
Sound production: NRK
Music Producer: Krzysztof Drab
Recording engineers: Elisabeth Sommernes and Marit Askeland
Video production: Trippel-M Levende Bilder
Director: Patrick Bakkland Gjerde
Oslo konserthus, January 4, 2019
(4K Ultra High Definition)
Klaus Mäkelä (b. 1996, Helsinki) has established a strong international presence through his instant musical connection with orchestras around the world. Mäkelä is Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor Designate of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and will assume the position at the beginning of the 2020-2021 season. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Artist in Association with Tapiola Sinfonietta, and Artistic Director of the Turku Music Festival.
In the 2019-2020 season, Mäkelä makes his first appearances with the NDR Elbphilharmonie, Münchner Philharmoniker, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Nederlands Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orquesta Nacional de España, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Hallé and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He returns to the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, MDR Leipzig, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Minnesota Orchestra, NAC Ottawa, Gothenburg and Tokyo Metropolitan symphony orchestras, and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. Mäkelä also continues his tenures with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Tapiola Sinfonietta where he has embarked on a Beethoven Cycle which will continue over the next two seasons. This seasons' concert programmes also include masterworks by Bruckner, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, and Debussy, Ravel and Berlioz.
Highlights from last season include appearances with Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de Lyon, Frankfurt Radio, Antwerp, Bern, and Malmö symphony orchestras, Bergen Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse which have led to immediate and consistent re-invitations.
Also working in opera, Mäkelä made his operatic debut in with the Finnish National Opera conducting The Magic Flute and a concertante performance of Erkki Melartin’s Aino.
Mäkelä studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula and cello with Marko Ylönen, Timo Hanhinen and Hannu Kiiski. As a soloist, he has performed with Finnish orchestras such as the Lahti Symphony, Kuopio Symphony and Jyväskylä Sinfonia as well as appearing at many Finnish festivals including the Kuhmo Chamber Music and Naantali Music Festival. He plays a Giovanni Grancino cello from 1698, kindly made available to him by the OP Art Foundation.
Source: klausmakela.com
More photos
See also
Sauli Zinovjev: Un Grande Sospiro – Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Klaus Mäkelä (HD 1080p)
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No.7 in C major "Leningrad" – hr-Sinfonieorchester, Klaus Mäkelä (HD 1080p)
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor – Martin Helmchen, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Klaus Mäkelä (HD 1080p)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.9 in D minor "Choral" – Ricarda Merbeth, Sophie Koch, Robert Dean Smith, Samuel Youn, Choeur de Radio France, L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Myung-Whun Chung (HD 1080p)
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