Arts & Events
Beethoven’s Immortal 9th Symphony at the Greek Theatre
On Friday evening, September 25, Gustavo Dudamel led the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre. Under Dudamel’s direction, the Simón Bolívar Orchestra has taken its place as one of the world’s leading orchestras. They just returned from performing several concerts and the opera La Bohème at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, with Dudamel conducting. Last week they opened the 2015-16 season in Los Angeles by uniting with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies. Beethoven, of course, was also the orchestra’s focus in their visit to Berkeley, and this visit was capped off in memorable fashion by an illuminating performance of Beethoven’s immortal 9th Symphony in D minor, Op. 125.
I use the term ‘illuminating’ quite literally. Never before have I heard so many details of this great symphonic masterpiece brought to light. For example, never before have I heard the sublime third movement, the Adagio, played in such achingly beautiful fashion as it was performed here by the Simón Bolívar Orchestra led by Gustavo Dudamel. And never before have I understood so clearly the crucial role this Adagio plays in the 9th Symphony’s overall emotional development. If anything prepares the way for the joyous utopian outpouring of optimism of the choral finale, the Ode to Joy, it is surely the solemn yet sublime profundity of the Adagio. This is music that sets one dreaming. As such, the Adagio draws on all the inspiring moments of the work’s more extroverted first two movements, but by slowing everything down the Adagio becomes a serenely introverted reflection on everything that has come before. There is a quiet confidence underlying this Adagio, as if Beethoven were himself reflecting on all the storm and stress of his own life and of his own earlier music, only to recognize here, near the end of his creative life, that an affirmation of utopian ideals is mankind’s best hope for transcending all the struggles and sorrows that haunt human life.
There is also in this Adagio a subtle hint of the voice-inflected song that will climax in the fourth and final movement. As Maynard Solomon writes, “In the first movement, Beethoven retains the condensed ‘heroic’ thematic treatment, de-veloping his materials from an arpeggiated common chord germ motif; and the scherzo, with its demonic dance character and rhythm-dominated thrust, is similarly far removed from song. With the two expressive and consoling themes of the Adagio, however, the speech-inflected accents of the human voice enter the Ninth Symphony, and they do so within a variation form which … takes on the character of an extended, through-composed song without words.”
The majestic fourth movement is divided into two large parts: the first instrumental, the second with chorus and soloists. A shrieking dissonance intro-duces the instrumental recitative for cellos and basses that joins the thematic reminiscences from the first three movements. The Ode to Joy theme makes its appearance unadorned in the low strings and undergoes a set of variations. Now the shrieking dissonance is heard again; but this time Beethoven allocates the following recitative to the human voice, as a baritone (sometimes a bass) declares, “Oh friends, no more of these sad tones! Rather let us raise our voices together, and joyful be our song.” With these words, sung here by baritone Solomon Howard, Beethoven introduces his immortal setting of Friedrich Schiller’s “An die Freude” (“Ode to Joy”). At Berkeley’s Greek Theatre, the Chamber Chorus of the University of California and Alumni, led by Marika Kuzma, joined with the Pacific Boychoir Academy led by Kevin Fox, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus, led by Lisa Bielawa. This mighty chorus intoned the noble words of Schiller’s Ode to Joy as adapted by Beethoven, who used only half of the 18 sections in Schiller’s poem and freely rearranged it in his own fashion. In addition to the chorus, Beethoven included music for four soloists, here ably performed by soprano Mariana Ortiz, mezzo-soprano J’nai Bridges, tenor Joshua Guerrero, and baritone Solomon Howard. The noble words of Schiller’s Ode to Joy as set to immortal music by Beethoven resounded in the open air of Berkeley’s vast Greek Theatre, and never did these noble sentiments echo so meaningfully in the cosmos as in this magical space. It was as if Dudamel, Beethoven’s 9th, and Berkeley’s Greek Theatre were simply meant for one another.
