Choir and Orchestra of the Music Academy: “Ahnst du?”Beethoven / Mahler / Seither
This event is in the past.
The Music Academy celebrates this year’s 100th anniversary of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation with two outstanding performances.
This event is in the past.
The Music Academy celebrates this year’s 100th anniversary of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation with two outstanding performances.
The anniversary programme includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the final chorus to Friedrich Schiller’s Ode to Joy (as orchestrated by Gustav Mahler) as well as a work by the renowned composer and Foundation alumna Dr Charlotte Seither commissioned especially for the anniversary.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 caused a seismic shock among Vienna audiences in 1824. Going well beyond the boundaries of convention in terms of length and tonal prowess, and combining symphonic and choral writing, Beethoven delighted audiences and divided critics in equal measure. For subsequent generations of composers, Beethoven’s last symphony proved their greatest challenge: Brahms was intimidated by the aura of Beethoven the “giant” when attempting to compose a symphony, and Wagner deemed his music “all-powerful”. Gustav Mahler, though equally reverent, took a pragmatic approach to conducting and considered edits of the music and additions to the orchestration necessary to adapt the work to the auditoria and orchestras of 1900.
In Ahnst du? for choir and orchestra, Charlotte Seither takes a critical look at the cosmos of Beethoven’s Ninth from a 21st century perspective. Working with the verses of Schiller’s Ode to Joy, which Beethoven did not use, Seither emphasises the poem’s lesser-known passages to shine a light on its ambivalence. Seither wants to show that the jubilant passages of “Brethren be ye” deserve critical muster from a modern-day perspective.
Choir and orchestra of the Music Academy
Martin Wettges, conductor
