An die Freude

[AdamSmith]

The incomparable Lennie conducting (after reflecting on) the Ode to Joy...

...with the Vienna Philharmonic, possibly the finest machine ever put together by the hand and mind of man.

I had thought the recording conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt leading the same orchestra was the sine qua non, but just stumbling across these Youtube bits makes me reconsider.

Holy shit. Just noticed he does not even have the fucking score in front of him. Cojones. Brilliance.

[Guest CharliePS]

I had heard Beethoven's 5th innumerable times before I heard Lennie conduct it, and suddenly I felt like I was hearing it for the first time. It was that way with the 3rd as well.

My piano teacher had been a classmate and good friend of his at Curtis, and he often visited her. I used to rush to my lesson at her house whenever he was conducting in town, in hopes of accidently running into him, but I never did.

[AdamSmith]

I used to rush to my lesson at her house whenever he was conducting in town, in hopes of accidently running into him, but I never did.

You have, despite this inexcusable failing of not meeting him (and getting the attendant aftermarker rewards!), one's undying love.

[AdamSmith]

... "All men become brothers."

[AdamSmith]

...und der cherub stett vor Gott!

Posting that only to snit how bad is the line just previous, and how really second-rate is Schiller in general. Odd that age's veneration of him.

[AdamSmith]

Just recollecting on some physician (or lawyer? Or some such non-musician) who was a Mahler fanatic, and who either won or purchased (ennybody heahabouts recall?) a chance to stand as conductor over some orchestra foredoomed to put up with him in public performance.

Point is, was fascinating to hear some member's (lead violinist's? Natural alpha performer but can't recall) remarks to the effect of, to paraphrase:

He could count time, and knew more or less where we should be emphatic and where subdued and understated; but otherwise he taught us why we should appreciate our professionally trained conductors. This amateur never thought to give any division of the orchestra any least hint of the comparative dynamics he would like, nor any hints about phrasing, which with Mahler as with many others is far from obvious or one-choice-only.

[AdamSmith]

(Oops.

As some pol said.)

[AdamSmith]

P.S. Just stumbled across this rather extremely cool site put together by a Beethoven fanatic!

http://www.madaboutbeethoven.com/pages/beethoven_music/beethoven_music_title.htm

...should you happen to be such yerself, closeted or out.

[AdamSmith]

P.P.S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UhlrSYaCe0

[AdamSmith]

P.P.P.S. One of the greatest violinists of the day, just after B's death, on the matter of his 2nd-to-last string quartet:

"We know something is there. We don't know what it is."

Could there be a more sublime epitaph?

[AdamSmith]

So, the whole shebang.

What strikes me on watching this is how obviously Lenny melded them together on a common interpretation in rehearsal, and now in performance he is just of course beating time on the one hand, and on the other no more than reminding them of what they want in dynamic and phrasing and expression.

Just so sublime.

[boiworship]

Klopstock was also revered in those days. See the final movement of Mahler's 2nd. I've loved that piece since I was 16.

[AdamSmith]

Much better discussion/analysis of the 9th than such things usually are:

http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/sep/09/symphony-guide-beethoven-ninth-choral-tom-service

[Suckrates]

I'm not familiar with Beethoven. Is he one of the Bel Ami boys ??????

[AdamSmith]

In 1924, Helen Keller wrote this to the New York Philharmonic, describing her experience of "hearing" their radio broadcast of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

Dear Friends:

I have the joy of being able to tell you that, though deaf and blind, I spent a glorious hour last night listening over the radio to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. I do not mean to say that I heard the music in the sense that other people heard it; and I do not know whether I can make you understand how it was possible for me to derive pleasure from the symphony. It was a great surprise to myself.

I had been reading in my magazine for the blind of the happiness that the radio was bringing to the sightless everywhere. I was delighted to know that the blind had gained a new source of enjoyment; but I did not dream that I could have any part in their joy. Last night, when the family was listening to your wonderful rendering of the immortal symphony someone suggested that I put my hand on the receiver and see if I could get any of the vibrations. He unscrewed the cap, and I lightly touched the sensitive diaphragm.

What was my amazement to discover that I could feel, not only the vibration, but also the impassioned rhythm, the throb and the urge of the music! The intertwined and intermingling vibrations from different instruments enchanted me. I could actually distinguish the cornets, the roil of the drums, deep-toned violas and violins singing in exquisite unison. How the lovely speech of the violins flowed and plowed over the deepest tones of the other instruments! When the human voices leaped up thrilling from the surge of harmony, I recognized them instantly as voices more ecstatic, upcurving swift and flame-like, until my heart almost stood still.

The women's voices seemed an embodiment of all the angelic voices rushing in a harmonious flood of beautiful and inspiring sound. The great chorus throbbed against my fingers with poignant pause and flow. Then all the instruments and voices together burst forth an ocean of heavenly vibration and died away like winds when the atom is spent, ending in a delicate shower of sweet notes.

Of course this was not hearing, but I do know that the tones and harmonies conveyed to me moods of great beauty and majesty. I also sense, or thought I did, the tender sounds of nature that sing into my hand-swaying reeds and winds and the murmur of streams. I have never been so enraptured before by a multitude of tone-vibrations.

As I listened, with darkness and melody, shadow and sound filling all the room, I could not help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marvelled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others and there I sat, feeling with my hand the magnificent symphony which broke like a sea upon the silent shores of his soul and mine.

- Helen Keller, 1924

http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/helen-keller-symphony-9/

[AdamSmith]

I'm not familiar with Beethoven. Is he one of the Bel Ami boys ??????

That would have been his ne'er-do-well nephew Karl.

[lookin]

- Helen Keller, 1924

http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/helen-keller-symphony-9/

Marvelous, on so many levels. Thanks for posting.