BEETHOVEN. Ernest Ansermet. Symphony No. 5 Symphony No. 6 Pastoral Symphony No. 7 Symphony No. 8 Egmont Overture. L Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Transcription

1 Eloq uence BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 Symphony No. 6 Pastoral Symphony No. 7 Symphony No. 8 Egmont Overture L Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Ernest Ansermet

2 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN ( ) CD Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op I Allegro con brio II Andante con moto III Allegro IV Allegro 8 31 Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 Pastoral 5 I Erwachen heiterer Empfindungen bei der Ankunft auf dem Lande 9 52 (Allegro ma non troppo) 6 II Szene am Bach (Andante molto mosso) III Lustiges Zusammensein der landleute (Allegro) IV Gewitter, Sturm (Allegro) V Hirtengesang. Frohe und dankbare Gefühle nach dem Sturm (Allegretto) 8 32 CD Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op I Poco sostenuto Vivace II Allegretto III Presto Assai meno presto IV Allegro con brio 8 47 Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op I Allegro vivace e con brio II Allegretto scherzando III Tempo di menuetto IV Allegro vivace Egmont Overture, Op L Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Ernest Ansermet Total timing:

3 Beethoven s Fifth Symphony, so familiar today that one risks taking it for granted, sounds almost as if it were composed in one sitting. Appearances are deceiving, though. Sketches for the new symphony appeared as early as 1804, four years before the work s completion. Beethoven set the as yet incomplete symphony aside, however, to work on the opera that eventually became known as Fidelio, and to compose a different symphony the Fourth commissioned by Count Franz von Oppersdorff. (Beethoven could have chosen to complete the Fifth Symphony for Oppersdorff, but perhaps he thought it would have been too revolutionary for the Count s tastes, or perhaps the Count s private orchestra would not have been able do it justice.) Several other major works also were composed between 1804 and 1808, including the Violin Concerto and the Fourth Piano Concerto. Beethoven s sketchbooks demonstrate the evolution of the symphony s themes and overall structure. These sketchbooks are proof that perfection doesn t always come in a flash of lightning, but is just as likely to be the result of painstaking work. One is reminded of Thomas Edison s comment that genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration! Even after the symphony s first performance, on 22 December 1808 in Vienna s Theater an der Wien, Beethoven made many changes to the score, including cutting repeated material in the third movement. The composer is supposed to have described the famous four notes that open the symphony as fate knocking at the door. Even though they have been endlessly appropriated and parodied by popular culture, their power and fascination remain undiminished after more than two centuries. The second movement, both serene and noble, is a set of double variations that is to say, in this movement, two themes are varied in alternation. The third movement opens with a theme played by cellos and double basses. This theme corresponds almost exactly (albeit in a different key) to the opening of the last movement of Mozart s Symphony No. 40. Beethoven appears to have been well aware of this, because he copied out Mozart s theme in a contemporary sketchbook. In any case, although the notes are the same, the emotional terrains that they describe are divergent context is everything. Instead of pausing between the third and fourth movements, Beethoven links them together with a suspenseful passage derived from earlier material, including the rhythm of the fate motif, quietly tapped out by the timpani. When the fourth movement proper arrives, it arrives in a blaze of glory a darkness into light effect, patterned, perhaps, after a passage in Haydn s oratorio The Creation. Haydn (specifically, his Symphony No. 46) might also have been a model for the movement s middle section, which unexpectedly returns to a quiet reminiscence of the theme originally shouted out by the horns in the third movement. The brilliant sonorities of Beethoven s finale depend, in part, on the composer s use of a piccolo and three trombones. Although Beethoven was not the first composer to introduce these instruments into the Classical symphony, his use of them had a nearly revolutionary effect appropriate for such a revolutionary work. Even twenty years after its premiere, when the symphony was performed in Paris, French composer Jean- François Le Sueur claimed to be so disoriented that he could not find his head, when he tried to put on his hat! Ansermet s 1958 recording of this symphony also keeps one guessing. In the first movement, he expertly balances tension and relaxation, and treats tempos flexibly, but not self-indulgently except, perhaps in the coda. The orchestral textures are transparent almost in the manner of a performance on period instruments and solos are handled with sensitivity. (The little oboe cadenza itself is a lesson on how much can be done with so few notes.) The contrast between the two main themes also enlivens the second movement, and Ansermet s martial colouring of the second theme, at its climax, is brilliant indeed. Again, tempo changes in the coda keep listeners on their feet. The conductor treats the Scherzo more genially even humorously than most conductors, although the trio is refreshingly matter-of-fact. The incipient mystery in the transition to the final movement is downplayed, but the movement itself is very successful, with inner voices emphasized to create more nuance. The orchestra s lower strings and brass buzz excitingly. The aforementioned concert at which the Fifth Symphony was premiered included several other works by Beethoven: the Fourth Piano Concerto, the Choral Fantasia, the concert aria Ah! perfido, an improvised piano fantasia and two movements from the Mass in C major. The Sixth Symphony ( Pastoral ) also was premiered at this marathon concert, which was made even more challenging for listeners by the cold temperatures inside the hall and out. Beethoven once claimed, No one loves the country as much as I do, and he had made a habit of spending his summers there. For him, nature was a spiritual experience. His Pastoral

4 Symphony, composed in , is a recollection of country life and, in Beethoven s words, more an expression of feeling than musical painting. As if to illustrate that distinction, the first movement is titled, Awakening of happy feelings upon arrival in the country. Indeed, the music seems to be reflecting a state of mind, rather than mimicking or illustrating, in a literal manner, the sights and sounds of the countryside around Vienna. Still, the Pastoral has plenty of tone-painting as well. The second movement ( Scene by the brook ) flows along in a watery 12/8 meter, and concludes with the song of the nightingale (flute), quail (oboe) and cuckoo (clarinet). The third movement ( Merry gathering of country folk ) is a rustic dance, and, at one point in the dance, Beethoven has a little fun at the expense of one of the country musicians: the poor bassoonist is allotted only three notes a descending phrase of F-C-F, which he dutifully pipes out at the end of a phrase, or whenever he thinks he can make it fit! With a shiver, the rustic dance comes to an abrupt end; the wind has come up and, in the fourth movement (which follows without pause), a thunderstorm with tempest winds breaks out. Here as in the other movements, Beethoven creates a feeling half of exhilaration and half of alarm but he also paints the storm in realistic detail. The rain arrives, first in individual drops and then in torrents, the winds howl, lightning splits the sky and thunder shakes the earth. The storm then departs as quickly as it came, and the fifth movement ( Shepherd s Song. Happy and grateful feelings after the storm ) immediately follows, again without a pause. Ansermet s Pastoral seems to depict the feelings of a sympathetic visitor to the country, not the experiences of an actual country-dweller. The first movement is luxuriously warm and hazy, with orchestral textures thicker and tempos more regular than in the Fifth Symphony. In the second movement, we hear not just the brook, but also the rocks that it skips over, and its little rapids, so sensitive is the conductor s shaping of rhythms. The woodwind solos throughout have plenty of character. Although the peasants dance in the third movement sways its hips alluringly, it otherwise displays the best of manners. Ansermet s depiction of the fourth movement s storm is relatively classical, with its pictorial elements played down. Best of all is the final movement. Here, Ansermet frees the opening melody from obvious religiosity we re still in the country, after all! and lets it soar, freely and lightly, into the evening sky. It is relatively easy to discern what Beethoven was trying to express in the Pastoral. With the Seventh Symphony, however, again we have a work that has been subjected to a number of fanciful explanations and interpretations. Richard Wagner called it an expression of almighty Bacchanalian joy and the Apotheosis of Dance. Others have heard in it a festival of chivalry, a village wedding and a drunken orgy. One common factor emerges, though: this is a symphony in which the usual rules of decorum are waived. Despite the symphony s unbuttoned mood, Beethoven composed it during a time of increasing stress. He was becoming increasingly frustrated with published scores of his music; the scores frequently contained unauthorized changes or additions, or outright errors. (In his publisher s defense, Beethoven s penmanship was challenging, to say the least.) Furthermore, his deafness was steadily worsening, and he was experiencing other health problems as well, including fevers and persistent headaches. On the advice of his doctor, he took the healing waters of the spa at Teplitz during the summer of 1811, and his health improved somewhat. It was following his visit to that Bohemian spa when he began the Seventh Symphony. The symphony was completed in April 1812, but it was not performed until December The occasion was a concert to benefit Austrian soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau two months earlier. Napoleon s earlier occupations of Vienna had traumatized its citizens and no doubt the Viennese were eager to celebrate his declining fortunes. This new symphony was a fitting receptacle for their hopes that the worst was over. It was warmly welcomed by the public and by the press. The Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, a publication not always sympathetic to Beethoven s music, praised the abundance of the new work s melodies, and called it the most satisfying and understandable of Beethoven s symphonies. Rhythm and repetition play a critical role in the Seventh Symphony. The famous second movement is almost obsessive in its treatment of the rhythm that opens it, but the symphony contains many examples of repeated rhythmic patterns, creating not monotony but virile excitement. Even in modern times, the symphony s rhythmic idiosyncrasies have caused comment. During a recording session, conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, always ready with a bon mot, remarked about the third movement, What can you do with it? It s like a lot of yaks jumping about. Although Beethoven would not compose a setting of Schiller s Ode to Joy until his Ninth Symphony, there is hardly anything

5 more joyful than the last movement of Beethoven s Seventh, a whirlpool of sound swallowing everything in its path, and converting it into radiant, pulsating energy. Ansermet conducts the Seventh Symphony as if it were an extension of the Pastoral. In the first movement, relaxation dominates, with no gigantism or exaggerated gestures. The orchestral sonorities are given mass, but inner voices are not obscured. Although the movement progresses straightforwardly, the little smiling rallentando at 8:42 is pure Ansermet! With its smoothly articulated rhythms, the second movement is less the procession it usually is, and more a deliberate study in repetition and terraced changes in dynamic levels. The climax at 6:41 is proportional to what has come before, and is not overdone. Even at his moderate tempo, Ansermet preserves the third movement s infectious bounce. In contrast, the trios are made to sound almost stately. The symphony ends not with rough humour, but with a surprisingly serious fourth movement even the shocking harmonic twist at 5:57 is presented with a straight face. In this movement, Ansermet emphasizes the timpani, which play an important role not just rhythmically but harmonically. Once he completed the Seventh Symphony, Beethoven almost immediately began work on the Eighth. The summer of 1812, again spent partly in Teplitz because of gastric ailments, was the summer of the so-called Immortal Beloved, an unnamed woman to whom Beethoven wrote a passionate but ultimately fruitless (or so it seems) declaration of love over the course of several days. Because this letter was found among Beethoven s effects after his death, it either was never sent, or was sent and returned. Several candidates have been named, the most likely of these being Antonie Brentano, the wife of one of Beethoven s friends. Having had his own romantic world rocked by the Immortal Beloved, Beethoven turned his attention to his younger brother Johann s personal life. Johann, a pharmacist residing in Linz, had been living with a woman, nominally his housekeeper, to whom he was not married. Beethoven, apparently seeing himself as a guardian of family morality, travelled from Teplitz to Linz in the fall of His intention had been to separate Johann from the woman. The result was that Johann married her instead. Beethoven completed the Eighth Symphony in October 1812, while staying with Johann. Right from its public premiere in February 1814, the modestly proportioned, even Haydnesque symphony was criticized for being different from (i.e. not as good as) the Seventh. Beethoven rightly shrugged off such criticism, and even told his friend and former pupil Carl Czerny that he thought that the Eighth was a much better work. Again, if Beethoven was feeling unusually stressed during the summer and fall of 1812, he did not express it in the Eighth Symphony. Indeed, Sir George Grove writes about Beethoven s love of fun and practical joking during this period of his life, and, hearing it manifested in this work, suggests that it be called the Humorous Symphony. The entire second movement, with its relentless ticktocking, might be interpreted as a joke at the expense of Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, or, more specifically, at the expense of the metronome, which Maelzel recently had refined. Ansermet seems determined that we not underestimate the Eighth Symphony. He conducts it with weight and seriousness, and his reading of the first movement seems like a continuation of his reading of the Seventh s finale. As a result, no exaggeration is necessary to make the second movement sound charming and droll. Instead of playing up the third movement s incipient roughness, Ansermet makes it smooth and courtly. A moment of humour is provided, though, by the bassoon s comically plaintive tone. In the trio, the horns are a model of smoothness which is imitated by the rest of the orchestra. In the last movement, Ansermet returns to the serious, almost gruff tone of the first. Count Lamoral of Egmont was a historical figure a Catholic who governed The Netherlands in the 1500s. He was executed by the Spanish authorities who had placed him there for supporting oppressed Dutch Protestants. In 1788, Goethe used Egmont s story as the basis for a drama by the same name. When the drama was revived 22 years later, Beethoven was commissioned to compose incidental music ten numbers in all, of which the overture is the most famous. Beethoven must have appreciated the title character s independence and idealism, because the overture is one of his finest short works. It ends with what Beethoven called a Victory Symphony the triumph of the human spirit and freedom over tyranny. Ansermet highlights the human qualities of Beethoven s hero, and also Egmont s melancholy for example, in the cello phrase at 1:52. This reading is less implacable than most, although the massive string chords at 3:06 and again at 5:46 leave no doubt as to the seriousness of Ansermet s interpretation. The victory music that ends the overture is given its exhilarating due. Raymond Tuttle

6 PHOTO : DECCA Ernest Ansermet The great Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet was a significant figure in the world of music from 1915 until A contemporary and friend of the greatest composers of the twentieth century, he founded the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva in He then moulded his orchestra in his own image, obliging the players, sometimes inflexibly, to tackle his favourite repertoire. For the fifty years of his almost despotic reign, Ansermet featured those composers whom he believed in, paying no attention to those who, in his opinion, had abandoned the true path of tonality. Most of his illustrious contemporaries did much the same, without however publicising their beliefs in print, as Ansermet did so spectacularly. It is no exaggeration to say that his influence was almost universal we should not forget that he conducted orchestras all over the world. Few other conductors have given so many world premieres: Parade, The Soldier s Tale, The Three-Cornered Hat, Pulcinella, Renard, Les Noces, the Symphony of Psalms, The Rape of Lucretia, La Tempête, Le Mystère de la Nativité, Chout works whose composers names spring immediately to mind. Then there are the many Swiss composers whose works he premiered: Honegger, Martin, Roy, Marescotti and Wiblé; in all, a sum of more than eighty first performances. After World War II, the record industry began to take a close interest in Ansermet and he was one of the first conductors to have the chance to record practically his entire repertoire. With the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande a whole series of Stravinsky pieces were recorded for the first time, and many of the records he made still count as classics of the gramophone. Ansermet s readings of many twentiethcentury classics have historical value, since he discussed these works and their problems of performance with the composers concerned: Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Bartók, Honegger and Martin to mention only those he recorded for Decca. Around 1956, with the arrival of stereo, he re-recorded a large part of his repertoire in considerably better sound. The 1960s saw a new departure for Ansermet when he began to record the classic symphonic repertoire: Haydn (his was the first recording of the Paris symphonies), Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms. His readings split the musical world down the middle: the French (and the Latin

7 countries in general) found him cold and lacking in poetry, while in German and Englishspeaking countries he was praised for his warmth and his sense of line and tempo. At this time the musical world was still under the influence of the tradition handed down from Mahler through Furtwängler and Mengelberg to Karajan. Ansermet, unformed by this tradition, was able to return to the written score, following the example of Toscanini or René Leibowitz. For example, the new vision he brought to the Beethoven symphonies was astonishing. Perhaps he was too early in what he did, in his respect for the text and in his weeding out of all the Romantic touches and subjectivity which held sway at the time. Without recourse to so-called authentic instruments, Ansermet was trying to return to the composer s intentions, as given in the score, avoiding the imposition of any responses of his own on the audience. His supposed coldness in the classical repertoire was in fact nothing less than perfect respect for the text. His recordings of the Beethoven and Brahms symphonies are, in this respect, quite remarkable, in spite of an orchestra with little experience in the repertoire. When we listen nowadays to his recordings, what strikes us is the extraordinary feeling he shows for tempo, his rhythmic energy, his precise sense of orchestral colour and his acute ear for musical form. Without excessive rubato or exaggerated effects he gets right to the heart of the music, using the simplest of means. Ansermet s art has been described as the poetry of precision (Poésie de l exactitude), and indeed his interpretations are all marked by great precision and the search for the correct feeling as he himself wrote. It is easy for a conductor to fill a musical phrase with feeling, because one can do more or less what one wants with a musical phrase. In any case, it is easier to do than to find the correct feeling, the one that puts the phrase in its context and takes account of its contribution to the piece as a whole. [ ] It is the interpreter s job to assimilate as much as possible the feeling which the composer turned into music, and to express it in such a way that the listener can hear it in terms of melody, harmony, rhythm and tempo. I have made my choice. First I imagine the musically sensitive listener. Thus I have faith in the listener, just as I have faith in the music, and the two things hang together. My idea is that the listener is able to understand and so all I need to do, insofar as I am able, is to let the music speak, without recourse to the sort of effects that one can always produce, but at the expense of truth. Balance, precision, a beautiful style and a warm interpretation: these are the hallmarks of Ansermet s performances, and the reasons why his art will always be unaffected by fashion and false traditions, and continue to have the power to move the listener. François Hudry Translation DECCA 1992

8 Ernest Ansermet s Beethoven recordings on Decca Eloquence Symphonies Nos. 1-4 Coriolan Overture (2CD) Symphonies Nos. 5-8 Egmont Overture (2CD) Symphony No. 9 Overtures Prometheus, Fidelio, Leonore 2 & 3; Grosse Fuge (2CD)) Recording producers: James Walker (Symphony No. 5, Egmont Overture); Ray Minshull (Symphonies Nos. 6, 7); Michael Bremner (Symphony No. 8) Recording engineers: Roy Wallace (Symphonies Nos. 5-7, Egmont Overture); James Lock (Symphony No. 8) Recording location: Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, May 1958 (Symphony No. 5, Egmont Overture), October 1959 (Symphony No. 6), January 1960 (Symphony No. 7), November 1963 (Symphony No. 8) Eloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-Homji Art direction: Chilu Tong Booklet editor: Bruce Raggatt

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