Fantasy for piano, choir and orchestra

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The Fantasy for Piano, Choir and Orchestra in C minor, Op. 80 ( Choral Fantasy for short ) is a concert piece by Ludwig van Beethoven and combines features of a piano fantasy , a piano concerto and a cantata . Because of the similarities in the layout with Beethoven's 9th Symphony , but also because of the similarity of the main melody to the Ode to Joy in its final movement, the choral fantasy is also called “Little Ninth”.

Emergence

On December 22nd, 1808 , an “academy” (then the name for a concert evening) with world premieres of works by Ludwig van Beethoven took place under his own direction in the Theater an der Wien . It is one of the most famous concerts and, given its length, would no longer be conceivable today. The following were heard at this "academy":

Beethoven wrote down the choral fantasy that was to bring the academy to a brilliant end in a very short time. The work contains variations of the unpublished song Gegenliebe (WoO 118) from 1794–95, the melody of which is also the basis for the finale of the 9th Symphony. However, he did not complete the introduction on paper, but improvised it during the performance. In the short period of time, the choral fantasy had not been rehearsed enough, and during the performance Beethoven interrupted the orchestra and started again. In 1810 Muzio Clementi published the choral fantasy in England under the opus number op. 65. The Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house then published it in 1811 as op. 80 and dedicated it to the King of Bavaria, Maximilian I Joseph, without Beethoven's consent .

text

According to a later statement by Beethoven's student Carl Czerny, the text was written by the poet Christoph Kuffner . This is confirmed by a recently discovered report about the first performance in the Annals of Literature and Art in the Austrian Empire (February issue 1809). The full text reads:


Our life's harmonies sound flatteringly, sweet and lovely ,
and
flowers that bloom forever die out of our sense of beauty .

Peace and joy glide gently
like the interplay of waves;
what was harsh and hostile,
turns into exhilaration.

When sounds are magic
and the word consecration speaks, something wonderful
has to be created,
night and storms become light,

outer calm, inner bliss,
reign for the happy but
the arts spring
sun lets light arise from both.

Great things that have penetrated the heart
then bloom again and beautifully,
if a spirit has swung up,
a ghost choir always echoes in it.

Accept, you beautiful souls,
gladly the gifts of fine art.
When love and strength marry, man is
worth the favor of the gods.

investment

Theme of the choral fantasy

The piano introduction comprises 26 bars in the final print and is titled Adagio . The alternative introduction with orchestra also comprises 26 bars, followed by the end of the fantasy titled Finale , the basses begin with the cellos , tempo: Allegro . The main part begins in bar 53 ( Meno allegro ) , and a theme in C major that Beethoven took from one of his early songs (Gegenliebe) is introduced. Several variations follow at the same tempo, then a C minor variation with a wild character, Allegro molto and a slow variation, Adagio ma non troppo , again in C major. In bar 322 there is a march in F major on the same theme. After a short transition, the actual final section begins in bar 398 with the entry of the vocal soloists, first the women, then the men, before the choir begins. Again some variations follow before the work ends.

Awareness and reception

The work is overshadowed by the similarly structured 9th Symphony and is therefore comparatively unknown. Another reason why it is rarely heard in performances is the unconventional line-up with choir, orchestra, vocal soloists and piano. In September 2008, however, the fantasy was performed as part of the BBC's Last Night of the Proms .

Influences of the work can be seen in the finale of the symphonic concert for piano and orchestra with male choir by Ferruccio Busoni .

The piece “Chorphantasie” by the Austrian playwright Gert Jonke is named after Beethoven's work and alludes to the circumstances of its premiere.

In his oratorio ARCHE, the composer Jörg Widmann quotes the final chorus over longer stretches true to tone with additional composed insertions. As text he chooses passages from Friedrich Schiller's An die Freude that Beethoven did not include in his 9th Symphony, and ends with the Pie Jesus of the Latin funeral mass and the verse “Let there be light” ( 1 Mos 1,3  EU ).

Machining

In 1951 the poet and later Minister of Culture of the GDR Johannes R. Becher was commissioned by the Central Council of the GDR youth organization Free German Youth to write a new text for the choral fantasy of the same year in Berlin (East) for the World Youth Festival. Becher wrote a new peace ode about music, corresponding to the mood of the times after the Second World War (although without any specific ideological or political partisanship), but followed Kuffner's text verbatim in some places. He saw the artistic legitimation for this extensive new creation in the traditional view of Beethoven that the text, written at short notice in 1808, was actually inadequate. Should the text be revised on behalf of the publisher, he would only care about the prominent position of the word “power”. Becher's text version was primarily performed in the GDR and can only be heard in a few recordings.

See also

literature

  • Frédéric Döhl: Fantasia in C minor for piano, choir and orchestra op. 80. In: Oliver Korte, Albrecht Riedmüller (Ed.): Beethoven's orchestral music and concerts (= The Beethoven Handbook. Volume 1). Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2013, ISBN 978-3-89007-471-9 , pp. 232-255.
  • Kurt Dorfmüller, Norbert Gertsch, Julia Runge: Ludwig van Beethoven. Thematic-bibliographical catalog of works. Volume 1, Henle, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-87328-153-0 , pp. 496-503.
  • Tobias Janz: Die Chorfantasie op. 80. In: Sven Hiemke (Ed.): Beethoven-Handbuch. Metzler, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-7618-2020-9 , pp. 270-272.
  • Gerhard Pätzig: Fantasy in C minor, Op. 80 (Choral Fantasy). In: Hans Gebhard (Ed.): Harenberg Chormusikführer . Harenberg, Dortmund 1999, ISBN 3-611-00817-6 , pp. 93-94.
  • Arnold Werner-Jensen: Reclam's music guide Ludwig van Beethoven. Reclam, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-15-010441-6 , pp. 369-370.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barry Cooper: Beethoven . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-531331-4 , pp. 193 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ History of the Choral Fantasy
  3. ↑ Klaus Martin Kopitz : Who wrote the text for Beethoven's choral fantasy? An unknown account of the premiere . In: Bonn Beethoven Studies . Volume 3 (2003), pp. 43-46 ( online ; PDF; 42.9 kB).
  4. ↑ Reinhard Ermend: Ferruccio Busoni . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-499-50483-9 , p. 41.
  5. ↑ Jörg Widmann: ARCHE (score as PDF). Schott Music, accessed August 2, 2019 .
  6. ^ Text of the version by Johannes R. Becher ( Memento from December 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on klassik-prisma.de
  7. ↑ Beethoven House Bonn. Digital archive