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Beethoven - Ode to Freedom (Symphony No. 9) - Leonard Bernstein

Posted By : jobanx | Date : 26 Oct 2008 03:59:00 | Comments : 4

“

The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. On Christmas Day 1989, only six weeks later, due to the organizational skills of Leonard Bernstein (and others) an historic concert of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was given in the Schauspielhaus in the former East Berlin with instrumentalists and singers from a number of different countries. These included orchestra members from the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestra of the Kirov Theater of Leningrad, the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. The choruses were those of Bavarian and Berlin Radio as well as, unusually, the Children's Choir of the Philharmonie Dresden. Soloists were June Anderson (soprano, American), Sarah Walker (mezzo, British), Klaus König (tenor, German) and Jan-Hendrik Rootering (bass, Dutch). The concert was broadcast all over the world and the crowd in the plaza outside the Schauspielhaus could be also seen watching the event on television. I remember seeing the event but strangely remember it as having been an outdoors concert; obviously, I was mostly remembering that joyous crowd of Berliners outside the hall. One could see them and the audience inside the hall hugging in celebration of the event and of the new-found ability of citizens of the two Germanys to mix with each other again.

The thing that most people remember about this performance is that Bernstein had asked the choruses and soloists to substitute the word 'Freiheit' ('Freedom') for Schiller's word 'Freude' ('Joy') so that the fourth movement of the symphony became an 'Ode to Freedom.' (There is a comment in the DVD booklet suggesting that 'Freiheit' was what Schiller had wanted to use but hadn't because of political trends of the time. As I understand it, there is fairly flimsy evidence for that notion.)

As a performance it is typical late Bernstein. The camera focuses on him quite a lot -- and he already looks tired and sick, but joyful, too, and indeed he died only ten months later. But there is no flagging in his conducting. Like many of his later performances, this one is slower than earlier performances. The third movement particularly is exceedingly slow, but it is also exceedingly beautifully played and is quite moving. Of note is that the combined orchestras' principal winds (and, I believe, brass) exchanged places between the second and third movements. One saw them trading chairs and shaking hands as they did so. Stanley Drucker, the NYPO's principal clarinet, played like an angel in the third movement.

”

June Anderson, Sarah Walker, Klaus König, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Leonard Bernstein
Berlin State Opera

Links:
http://rapidshare.com/files/334033149/jobanx008.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/334039057/jobanx008.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/334043665/jobanx008.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/334048092/jobanx008.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/334052888/jobanx008.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/334057699/jobanx008.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/334062324/jobanx008.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/334067219/jobanx008.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/334072327/jobanx008.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/334074487/jobanx008.part10.rar

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Posted By: ramonjd Date: 26 Oct 2008 10:56:44

Thanks a lot, jobanx!

Do you have the CD version (or can you rip the sound to a lossless format)?

Posted By: jobanx Date: 26 Oct 2008 14:42:22

I'm afraid not! That's all I have.

Posted By: jerryap Date: 09 Jan 2009 08:03:53

Thank you very much for this gift =)

Posted By: sahandelmi Date: 20 Jun 2009 08:08:42

Thank you very much
share more like this if you can ....

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