Ludwig van Beethoven - Fantasia, Op.80 (Richter-Haaser)

Описание: Composed in a bunch of days as a final piece for the legendary Große Akademie of 22 December 1808, when were performed the aria "Ah, perfido!" Op. 65, the Fifth and Sixth Symphony, the Fourth Piano Concerto Op. 58, a long improvisation at the piano (later, the Fantasy Op. 77) and the Gloria of the Mass Op. 86, this powerful Fantasy was conceived to unite in a single piece the different musical elements highlighted in the concert night: the piano and the orchestra, with Beethoven himself conducting, playing (and improvising the initial solo), vocal soloists and mixed chorus at the end, in an enthusiastic crescendo. The work appears as a kind of laboratory for the Ninth Symphony: thematically, for the presence of choir and soloists with orchestra, and for some harmonic procedures. In a letter of 1824, when he was working on the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven described his project as "a setting of the words of Schiller's immortal 'Lied an die Freude' in the same way as my pianoforte fantasia with chorus, but on a far grander scale". The text is attributed to Christoph Kuffner ( 1777 – 1846).

. . .

Schmeichelnd hold und lieblich klingen
unseres Lebens Harmonien,
und dem Schönheitssinn entschwingen
Blumen sich, die ewig blühn.
Fried und Freude gleiten freundlich
wie der Wellen Wechselspiel.
Was sich drängte rauh und feindlich,
ordnet sich zu Hochgefühl.

Wenn der Töne Zauber walten
und des Wortes Weihe spricht,
muss sich Herrliches gestalten,
Nacht und Stürme werden Licht.
Äuß're Ruhe, inn're Wonne
herrschen für den Glücklichen.
Doch der Künste Frühlingssonne
läßt aus beiden Licht entstehn.

Großes, das ins Herz gedrungen,
blüht dann neu und schön empor.
Hat ein Geist sich aufgeschwungen,
hallt ihm stets ein Geisterchor.
Nehmt denn hin, ihr schönen Seelen,
froh die Gaben schöner Kunst
Wenn sich Lieb und Kraft vermählen,
lohnt den Menschen Göttergunst.

.

Graceful, charming and sweet is the sound
of our life's harmonies,
and from a sense of beauty arise
flowers which eternally bloom.
peace and joy advance in perfect concord,
like the changing play of the waves.
All that was harsh and hostile,
has turned into sublime delight.

When music's enchantment reigns,
speaking of the sacred word,
magnificence takes form,
the night and the tempest turns to light:
outer peace and inner bliss
reign o'er the fortunate ones.
all art in the spring's sun
lets light flow from both.

Greatness, once it has pierced the heart,
then blooms anew in all its beauty.
Once one's being has taken flight,
a choir of spirits resounds in response.
Accept then, you beautiful souls,
joyously the gifts of high art.
When love and strength are united,
divine grace is bestowed upon Man.

. . .

Teresa Stich-Randal, soprano
Judith Hellwig, soprano
Hilde Rossel-Majdan, contralto
Anton Dermotta, tenor
Erich Majkut, tenor
Paul Schöffler, bass

Hans Richter-Haaser, piano

Wiener Symphoniker & Staatsopernchor
Karl Böhm, cond.
rec. 1957

. . .

Score edited by Admin Raab
G. Henle Verlag, München 1998.
A page missing was replaced with a page from the edition Breitkopf und Härtel.

. . .

Joseph Willibrord Mähler (1778 – 1860), Portrait of Beethoven, 1804 - 1805, particular.