TMSO Special “Beethoven's 9th”（12/25）

This concert is over. Date: Sun. 25. December 2022 14:00 (13:00)

Venue: Tokyo Bunka Kaikan

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Artists

Eliah INBAL, Conductor
Ayaka OKI, Soprano
Etsuko KANOH, Mezzo-Soprano
Kota MURAKAMI, Tenor
Hidekazu TSUMAYA, Bass
Nikikai Chorus Group, Chorus

Profile

Eliahu INBAL (Conductor Laureate)

Eliahu Inbal was born in Jerusalem in 1936. He held numerous chief posts with orchestras such as Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester), Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Teatro la Fenice di Venezia, and Czech Philharmonic. He was appointed Conductor Laureate of Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in 2014. Many CDs of live performances by Inbal and TMSO are winning great acclaim. He was decorated by French and German Government, and by the cities of Frankfurt and Wien. In August 2019, Inbal served as Principal Conductor of Taipei Symphony Orchestra.

Ayaka OKI (Soprano)

Etsuko KANOH (Mezzo-soprano)

Kota MURAKAMI ()

Hidekazu TSUMAYA (Bass)

Hidekazu Tsumaya graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts and completed its graduate school. He was awarded the 24th Giraud Opera Award. After studying in Milan, he joined the Opernhaus Leipzig (1994 ~ 2001) and the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar (2002 ~ 2011) with an exclusive contract. He has also performed at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In Japan, he has performed in numerous theatres, including the New National Theatre, Tokyo. He has performed in a total of more than 1000 performances of 70 operas singing 100 roles. He celebrated 30 years as an opera singer in 2018. He performs as a soloist in orchestra concerts and Christian music. He plays an active role in master class education activities. He is scheduled to perform in the 2019 New National Theatre, Tokyo production of Tannhäuser as Hermann, and the Tokyo Nikikai Opera Foundation production of Hérodiade as Phanuel. He is a member of the Tokyo Nikikai Opera Foundation.

Nikikai Chorus Group (Chorus)

Nikikai Chorus Group, the first professional chorus group in Japan, was established in 1953. Centering its activities in opera performances, Nikikai Chorus Group also makes guest appearances with major orchestras, gives original concerts and performs in schools. The chorus appears regularly with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra at concerts of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9.

Program

Beethoven: Symphony No.9 in D minor, op.125, "Choral"

Program Notes

Ⅰ Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
Ⅱ Molto vivace - Presto
Ⅲ Adagio molto e cantabile
Ⅳ Presto - Allegro assai

　Ludwig van Beethoven: Born in Bonn, December 17, 1770; died in Vienna, March 26, 1827

　In its grandeur, elemental power, cosmic scope and affirmation of the universal human spirit, Beethovenʼs Ninth (THE Ninth) embraces a world of emotional expression ranging from deep pathos to exultant joy, from demonic fury to seraphic tranquility, from motoric energy to beatific stasis. The span of this seventy-minute work seems to depict a vast structure forming “before our ears” … its opening moments as coming “out of the void,” as Cleveland Orchestra annotator Klaus G. Roy put it. “Fragments begin to cohere; thematic atoms and molecules form larger structures. To most listeners, the same sense of awe, wonder and mystery that accompanies contemplation of the starry night applies to the Ninth.”
　Twelve years separated the completion of Beethovenʼs final symphony from the Eighth (1812). Ideas, sketches and fragments had coalesced over a period of many years, but work commenced in earnest only in 1822. The symphony was finished in early 1824, and the premiere took place on May 7 of that year. Having decided to incorporate Schillerʼs ode “An die Freude” into his Ninth Symphony, Beethoven struggled greatly to find the proper way to introduce the vocal element into an otherwise purely instrumental symphony. His solution consisted of an instrumental introduction in which brief references to the three previous movements are peremptorily rejected by a recitative-like passage for cellos and basses. This “recitative” presents the musical material for the first vocal entry (bass), which proclaims, “Oh friends, not these tones! Let us sing of more pleasant and joyful things,” whereupon the famous theme, formerly played by the orchestra, is now sung (“Freude, schöner Götterfunken”). This theme, of almost naive simplicity, caused Beethoven no end of difficulty. Dozens of variants are found in his Sketchbooks, leading to the final, perfected form he retained.
　The symphonyʼs opening is one of the most famous in the repertory. Barely a moment is required for the listener to recognize that mood of hushed expectancy, created by the sound of stark fifths in the horns, the strange rustling in the lower strings, and the violinsʼ thematic fragments that soon coalesce into a mighty unison outburst for the full orchestra. Though laid out in sonata form (exposition − development − recapitulation − coda), the movement contains a wealth of thematic ideas, and is far too complex to discuss in terms of the traditional contrasting first and second themes. The principle of continuous growth pervades instead, with much of the musical material distinguished by its rhythmic rather than melodic interest. The development section involves a lengthy working out of the principal theme (the initial unison outburst). The approach of the recapitulation is signaled by two immense, terrifying statements of the principal theme in D major over rumbling timpani. Leo Treitler writes of the “horrifying brightness that the major mode can have. It is, all in all, the shock of being now pulled into the opening with great force, instead of having it wash over us.” The movement ends with an apocalyptic vision.
　For the first and only time, Beethoven precedes the slow movement of a symphony with the Scherzo, a plan Bruckner was to follow seventy years later in his own Ninth (also in D minor). As music of relentless, driving power, the Scherzo is unsurpassed. This huge structure consists of a sonata-form Scherzo with two important themes. But like the first movement, this is anything but a conventional sonata form. The rhythmic pattern hammered out in the opening bars and its characteristic octave drop pervade the fugally developed first theme, in addition to becoming the accompaniment pattern to the robust and joyous second theme heard in the unison woodwinds. The central Trio section brings much-needed relief − a breath of fresh air and sunlight. Brighter colors, the major mode and more transparent textures all serve to contrast the Trio with the demonic power of the Scherzo, which is then repeated in full.
　The Adagio movement, one of the most sublime ever written, stands in stark contrast to the propulsive energy and forbidding grimness of the previous movements. Two lyrical and well-contrasted themes of transcendent beauty are alternately elaborated in a double variation form. A mood of quiet exaltation and profound peace reigns by the closing pages, only to be shattered by one of the most horrendous outbursts in all music.
　After the finaleʼs long instrumental antecedent is finished, the movement unfolds in free variation form. Beginning with the bass soloistʼs first stanza, the “Ode to Joy” moves through a series of highly varied treatments: twice for solo vocal quartet (followed by choral response); a Turkish march featuring characteristic “Turkish” instruments − triangle, bass drum, piccolo − with tenor solo; an elaborate orchestral fugue answered by a mighty choral affirmation of the “Ode to Joy”; a stately new theme beginning with “Seid umschlungen, Millionen” (Andante maestoso), initially for male chorus and trombones, which in the following section (Allegro energico) combines with the “Ode to Joy” in a great double fugue; a spirited vocal quartet introduced by skittering violins, and joined later by full chorus. This leads to the famous cadenza for the soloists, where the operatic implications of voices joining orchestra are fully exploited. Each soloist climbs to the top of his or her range. In a final burst of frenzied 　joy, The Ninth ends in the realm of Elysium, light years removed from the cares and toils of daily life.
　Beethoven scholar Maynard Solomon, in an address in Detroit some years ago, summed up the import of Beethovenʼs Ninth in these words: “Beethovenʼs life and his art can be envisaged as a search for Elysium, for ‘one day of pure joy,ʼ for fraternal and familial harmony, as well as for a just and enlightened social order. With the ‘Ode to Joyʼ of the Ninth Symphony that search found its symbolic fulfillment.
　“Beethovenʼs Ninth has been perceived by later generations as an unsurpassable model of affirmative culture, a culture which, by its beauty and idealism, some believe, anesthetizes the anguish and the terror of modern life, thereby standing in the way of a realistic perception of society … If we lose the dream of the Ninth Symphony, there may remain no counterpoise against the engulfing terrors of civilization, nothing to set against Auschwitz and Vietnam as a paradigm of humanityʼs potentialities.”

　Robert Markow's musical career began as a horn player in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He now writes program notes for orchestras and concert organizations in the USA, Canada, and several countries in Asia. As a journalist he covers the music scenes across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, especially Japan. At Montreal's McGill University he lectured on music for over 25 years.
　

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