Ravinia_2018_Issue_3_Week

MARIN ALSOP,

conductor

Marin Alsop’s biography appears on page 107.

WYATT PARR,

boy soprano

A Chicago native, Wyatt Parr has been singing

with Chicago Children’s Choir since September

2016, and currently sings in the Lincoln Park/

DePaul Neighborhood Choir. In June 2017, he

sang the boy soprano solo in Bernstein’s

Chich-

ester

Psalms

with CCC at its annual Paint the

Town Red event at Millennium Park. Parr has

also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago

in its productions of Bizet’s

Carmen

and Pucci-

ni’s

Turandot

as a member of the children’s cho-

rus, and he will return to the company this fall

in the children’s chorus for Puccini’s

La bohème

(

See page 115 for more information about CCC.

)

performing medium (solo and choral forces in

addition to the typical orchestral “families”) and

an enduring text.

In the

Allegro, ma non troppo, un poco maesto-

, the robust triadic first theme slowly emerges

from a sparse, hushed opening. A quiet compos-

ite of lyrical motives, serving as a second theme,

does not completely still the turbulence boiling

beneath the surface. Beethoven manipulates

thematic fragments in an extensive develop-

ment. The recapitulation begins in major before

reverting to minor in preparation for a massive

coda.

The second movement combines scherzo and

sonata ideals. A fleet, triple-meter sonata form,

with repeated exposition, functions as the

scher-

. Turning to cut time, Beethoven introduces a

quieter

trio

before resuming the

scherzo

music.

The

Adagio molto e cantabile

consists of inter-

locking sets of variations, such as Beethoven

might have learned from Haydn.

A chaotic dissonance inaugurates the finale.

Basses and cellos anticipate the solo bass voice

recitative, while the orchestra reminisces on

themes from earlier movements. Complete

statements of the “Ode to Joy” melody appear in

the low strings then full ensemble, but without

text it remains an empty, yet beautiful tune.

Chaos strikes with greater force in a tone clus-

ter containing every member of the D-minor

scale. The bass solo rejects all music heard to

this point, implores the gathered company (“O

Friends, not these sounds! Instead, let us make

sweeter and more joyous music!”), then begins

the famous “Ode,” which the chorus and other

soloists join. This melody, varied in each repeti-

tion, alternates like a refrain between new vocal

themes. Beethoven concludes his exhilarating

hymn with a quicksilver orchestral coda.

The interpretive adaptability of Schiller’s text has

thrust this symphony into the service of politics

and nationalism. One popular notion, that the

poet intended an ode to

Freiheit

(freedom) but

changed it to

Freude

(joy), circulated widely

during the 19th century. As a result, Beethoven’s

setting achieved almost universal significance

during this age of revolution and political up-

heaval. Interestingly, this viewpoint turned

against the composer’s own culture during

World War I. The Frenchman Camille Mauclair

was one of many who believed that “the ‘Ode to

Joy’ is the unique hymn of the Allies, the credo

of all our just hopes, and it would be necessary

to forbid criminal Germany ever to play a single

bar of it.” Two decades later, the Nazis enlisted

the Ninth Symphony for their own propaganda

purposes. One of the great cultural showcases—

the 1938 Düsseldorf Reichsmusiktage—featured

Beethoven’s music. Adolf Hitler requested a per-

formance this symphony for his 1942 birthday

celebrations.

After the fall of the BerlinWall, a once-torn Ger-

man nation celebrated its reunification to these

strains. Leonard Bernstein assembled an orches-

tra and chorus for two special Christmas-time

concerts on both sides of the Brandenburg Gate.

These 220 musicians from the East and West

performed on December 23 in West Berlin’s

Philharmonie concert hall and then on Christ-

mas morning in East Berlin’s Schauspielhaus

theater. Caught in the spirit of the event, Ber-

nstein substituted the word

Freiheit

for

Freude

Leonard Bernstein hammering the Berlin Wall

Title page of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9

RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 9 – JULY 15, 2018

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