{"id":2729,"date":"2009-10-21T07:56:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T11:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.berkshirelinks.com\/?p=2729"},"modified":"2009-10-21T07:56:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-21T11:56:00","slug":"bso-schedules-all-beethoven-symphonies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/bso-schedules-all-beethoven-symphonies\/","title":{"rendered":"BSO schedules all Beethoven symphonies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boston Symphony Orchestra has scheduled consecutive performances of all nine Beethoven symphonies in a series of 4 programs beginning Oct. 22, 2009. Program 1 is previewed here by Karl Henning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Rafael<\/a>The notion of performing all nine of Beethoven\u2019s<\/strong> symphonies in just over a fortnight was, I thought, a very musical response on maestro James Levine\u2019s<\/strong> part to the Zeitgeist of safer orchestral programming in the face of tougher economic times. It\u2019s a project, though, which reaches back to the very early days of the Boston Symphony<\/strong>. Georg Henschel<\/strong> led the orchestra in all nine, in each of his three seasons, 1881-1884. This feat was not repeated until March of 1927, when in observance of the centenary of Beethoven\u2019s death, Serge Koussevitzky<\/strong> led the BSO in all nine symphonies (and more besides) in one week. Koussevitzy once again led all nine, though over a broader span of time, on Tuesday afternoon concerts in the 1933-1934 season.<\/p>\n

Largely a symphony wherein Beethoven works (with great assurance) within the \u2018bounds\u2019 of his forebears Haydn and Mozart, the First nonetheless starts out with a brilliant touch of harmonic misdirection. A symphony normally begins by establishing a key, which in the case of Beethoven\u2019s First is C Major. But the opening chord does not belong to C Major (let alone establish it): it is a C dominant-seventh chord, resolving to F. Even the next chord, G dominant-seventh \u2013 which ought to \u201cfix\u201d things \u2013 winds up resolving \u2018deceptively\u2019 to A minor. Beethoven does indeed set C Major as the key, but in his impertinence, he doesn\u2019t do it by rehearsing for the nth time the hoary old I-IV-V-I. The clearest indication in the First, though, of the dramatic changes which Beethoven will impose upon the genre of the symphony, is in the sped-up third movement, which is still labeled \u201cMinuet,\u201d but is in fact already a characteristic Scherzo.<\/p>\n

Neither does Beethoven mask his ambitions in the Second Symphony, but sets immediately out for new musical territory. The first movement of a symphony has given the name to sonata-allegro form: i.e., Allegro, at a fast (cheerful) pace; and the norm had been established by Beethoven\u2019s time of starting out at tempo. It was relatively seldom that Mozart (e.g.) began the first movement with a slow introduction (though we note that Beethoven has now elected to do so with each of his first two symphonies). With the first movement of the Second, it is not the fact of a slow introduction that is any novelty, but its scale: the movement begins with 33 measures at a very slow pace, Adagio molto. This compared to (for example) 16 measures at Adagio which begin Haydn\u2019s \u201cLondon\u201d Symphony (? 104), or 15 measures at Adagio which introduce the first movement of Mozart\u2019s great E-flat Symphony (? 39, K.543).<\/p>\n

The main event on this first program, though, is obviously the great C minor symphony, the Fifth \u2013 whose opening motive is one of the most recognizable bits of music on the planet. So much has already been written about Beethoven\u2019s Opus 67, and, if you are reading this the chances are you already know something about classical music, and you could probably write a paragraph about Beethoven\u2019s Fifth, yourself \u2013 that I shall content myself with a mere editorial remark about the third movement.<\/p>\n

Kurt Masur\u2019s<\/strong> set of Beethoven symphonies from the early 1990s with the Gewandhausorchester was the first recording of the edition prepared by Peter G\u00fclke, an edition whose most salient feature perhaps is the restoration of a repeat sign from the autograph score, which changes the overall form of the third movement Scherzo from ABA’ (as it has traditionally been performed) to ABABA’ (which is how Beethoven designed the Scherzi for the Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, e.g.) I wonder which edition the BSO will be playing.<\/p>\n

Fate has played the trickster with Levine\u2019s plans to lead the entire series of nine symphonies, and in all events we wish him a speedy recovery from surgery. (Maestro Levine will return to the BSO podium<\/a> to lead the orchestra in a program of Beethoven\u2019s Sixth and Seventh symphonies, October 30 and 31, 2009.) It will be most interesting to see what Rafael Fr\u00fchbeck de Burgos<\/strong> does with these staples, in Levine\u2019s stead for the first program.<\/p>\n