Arts & Events

San Francisco Symphony offered two performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Friday-Saturday, July 8-9, at Davies Hall, conducted by Edwin Outwater, now in his third season as Director of Summer Concerts at SF Symphony. Beethoven’s Ninth, of course, is a major milestone in any conductor’s career, and Outwater met the challenge with an excellent performance, leading his orchestra, soloists and chorus in a fiery yet tightly controlled reading of this great symphony.  

Scholars have long noted that Beethoven’s Ninth traverses a trajectory from darkness to light, or, put another way, from initial chaos to ultimate transcendence. One interpretation, initially put forth by Wilhelm von Lenz and Otto Baensch, noted similarities between Haydn’s Die Schopfung (Creation) and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and argued that here Beethoven painted a musical picture of the cosmos beginning in chaos, moving through strife to create form, achieving a primal state of nature in the pagan world of Arcadia, then ultimately moving beyond Arcadia to the eternal realm of Elysium. This interpretation owed a lot to Friedrich von Schiller, who wrote not only the poetic song An die Freude (Ode to Joy), which served Beethoven for his finale to the Ninth Symphony, but also wrote the famous essay “Naïve and Sentimental Poetry,” in which Schiller argued that humanity must not seek to recreate a primal Golden Age, an Arcadia, but must look forward to create an eternal realm of Elysium. This general interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was also taken up by the eminent French writer Romain Rolland in his book on Beethoven. (For an excellent summary of these positions, see the opening chapter of Maynard Solomon’s Beethoven Essays, Harvard University Press, 1988.) 

To be sure, there are hints, both musical and textual, that seem to support such an interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth. Certainly, the opening measures of this work seem to express a sense of emergence or of crystallization, of something coming into being and seeking form. There are also foreshadowings in each of the first three movements of the Ode to Joy theme; and it is as if in these variants Beethoven were seeking an ultimate expression of Joy he had not yet fully and clearly elaborated. The second movement, a scherzo, is rhythmically driving and full of strife, but it also contains a trio that offers solemn respite from strife and a forward glimpse both to the Arcadian calm of the Adagio and to the Elysian transcendence of the Finale’s Ode to Joy.  

The Adagio begins with two bars of clarinets, bassoons, and strings in an upbeat mode. Two themes are introduced, varying in gait, key, and mood. When the second theme is dropped, the first is developed in great detail, achieving a harmonious serenity that could symbolize either Arcadia or the music of the spheres. Under Edwin Outwater’s leadership, the San Francisco Symphony gave a radiant reading of this marvelous Adagio.  

However, for Beethoven, whether or not he had in mind Schiller’s insistence that a return to Arcadia was not possible, the serenity of his Adagio was clearly not the ultimate goal toward which he was striving. Rejecting the Adagio theme, he writes: “Also not this; it is too tender; we must seek something more animated.” And when Beethoven discovers what will be his Joy theme, he writes: “This is it. Ha! It is now discovered.” 

To move from the serenity of the Adagio to the immense drama of the Ode to Joy, Beethoven introduces a dissonant fanfare of drums and brass, played fortissimo. It is music of great portent, and of great struggle. Following this outburst, the cellos and basses offer a growling protest. Then these low-register instruments begin to articulate the Ode to Joy theme. Playing softly, they are joined, first, by the violas, then by the violins. As the strings gradually increase the volume, they are joined by the brass, and ultimately the whole orchestra articulates the Joy theme in full, playing it now fortissimo. After a return of the dissonant fanfare that opened the movement, Beethoven launches into the Ode to Joy, prefaced by words Beethoven himself added to introduce Schiller’s poetic text.  

“O Freunde, nicht diese Tone! Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen; und Freudenvollere.” (Oh friends, put aside these sounds! Let us be more civil, and speak more joyfully.”) In this SF Symphony performance, these words were robustly sung by bass Adam Lau, who brought power and clear diction to his interpretation. Following this introduction, Adam Lau began the Ode to Joy with the familiar, inspiring words, “Freude, schöner Gotterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium” (“Joy, beautiful godlike spark, daughter of Elysium.”) Now the chorus enters, singing of the way all men become brothers under the soft wings of Joy.  

Following this inspirational moment, all four soloists praise nature. In San Francisco, the soloists, in addition to bass Adam Lau, were tenor Mario Chang, soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer, and mezzo-soprano Zanda Švėde. Their voices blending beautifully, they soared above the chorus, who soon joined in. Suddenly, a march cadence begins, as the text of Schiller’s Ode to Joy speaks of the harmony of the spheres and the orbit of planets. “Brothers,” admonishes the text, “follow your path joyfully, as a hero who rides toward victory.” This is followed by a repeat of the movement’s opening refrain of “Freude, schöner Gotterfunken.” Then the choral basses sing of a kiss for the millions, a kiss for the world. To this they add that a loving father must live above the canopy of stars. The whole chorus then asks if we humans sense the creator? “Seek him above the canopy of stars,” they sing. “Above the stars he must live.” Beethoven then launches into a fugue on the opening refrain of “Freude, schöner Gotterfunken.” This fugue, sung by all four soloists and the entire chorus, backed by the full orchestra, then brings the Ninth Sympny to its ecstatic climax. Under the direction of conductor Edwin Outwater, the orchestra, the soloists, and the Symphony Chorus led here by Eric Choate, combined forces to offer an excellent, rewarding reading of Beethoven’s masterful Ninth Symphony.