Tag Archives: Ludwig van Beethoven

Listening to Beethoven #222 – Leonore

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Beethoven’s Leonore as designed for the Wiener Staatsoper, 2020

Leonore, opera in three acts (1804-05, Beethoven aged 34)

Libretto Jean Nicolas Bouilly, trans. Joseph Sonnleithner

Duration 138′

by Ben Hogwood

Background, Synopsis and Critical Reception

“Probably nothing has caused Beethoven so much grief as this work, whose value will be fully appreciated only in the future”.

The words of Stephan von Breuning to Franz Wegeler in Bonn, talking about Beethoven’s first opera Leonore, which did indeed bring a great deal of strife for its composer in the lead-up to the premiere in November 1805.

The libretto was relatively new, written in the late 1790s by Jean Nicolas Bouilly, the administrator of a French department near Tours during the Reign of Terror. Lewis Lockwood gives an excellent back story to Leonore’s construction. He writes that ‘it was widely accepted that during Bouilly’s governance an episode resembling that of the opera plot had actually taken place’…where ‘a woman disguised as a young man had worked her way into her husband’s prison and freed him from his unjust captivity. Thus, if the take were true, Bouilly himself would have been the minister who liberated the prisoner, and so the libretto seemed to commemorate not only actual heroism but the author’s own benevolence amid the frightening atmosphere of France in those years.’

The opera is set in the prison. The first act is conducted at ground level, where the prisoners take in the rarified air on their rare visits above ground, and where Leonore, disguised as Fidelio, has arrived to try and rescue her beloved Florestan. Immediately she becomes the object of Marcellina’s affections, which she eventually repels. In this process we are introduced to Rocco, a peasant voiced by a fulsome baritone who helps Leonore greatly.

The two levels below ground are reserved for the prisoners, The second act brings them to the fore, as Leonore gets closer to freeing her beloved, with memorable moments including the quartet Mir ist so wunderbar and the Prisoners’ Chorus. The third and final act begins in the dungeon where Florestan has been chained to the wall for two years, freezing and starving. He takes centre stage at the start, his pain all too evident for the audience in the aria Gott, welch Dunkel hier. Liberation is at hand, however – Florestan seeing Leonore as an angel sent to rescue him. The finale celebrates her bravery.

Rather confusingly, Beethoven wrote four overtures for Leonore / Fidelio. The first one to be used was Leonore no.2, which was used for this version of Leonore. The subsequent three versions work in different introductions for Florestan’s aria, while the Fidelio overture itself – written for the 1814 staging – is wholly different.

Two composers had already set the libretto to music. The second, Ferdinando Paer, aroused Beethoven’s interest and competitive edge. Because Paer had already named his version Leonore, Beethoven titled his Fidelio, or Conjugal Love. He hooked up with Joseph Sonnleithner, a prominent musical figure in Vienna, who translated the libretto – on which Beethoven began work in January 1804. At that point he only wanted the ‘poetical part’ of the libretto to be translated, and an exchange between the two reveals that his plans were already in place to stage the work in June 1804. leading up to the premiere in November 1805, which took place under the shadow of Napoleon’s anticipated invasion of Vienna – and was indeed attended by a large number of French army officers. Further attempts at staging in Berlin and Prague were unsuccessful, before Beethoven revised the opera for a production in Vienna in 1814, renaming it Fidelio.

As Jan Swafford explains in an absorbing biography chapter about Leonore, writing vocal music could be a struggle for Beethoven. “He always had more trouble writing vocal music than instrumental”, Swafford writes, referring to the sketchbook for Leonore where there are 18 different beginnings to Florestan’s aria In des Lebens Frühlingstagen and a mere ten for the chorus Wer ein holdes Weib. That didn’t mean Beethoven wasn’t any good at it, but the process of getting the right notes on the page was a painful experience.

The results, however, have been revelatory. Lewis Lockwood describes a work that “has resonated through two centuries as a celebration of female heroism”. In a candid booklet note for his recording of Leonore on Deutsche Grammophon, John Eliot Gardiner notes how “for sheer simplicity and directness of utterance, and for the way he imbues his orchestral set-pieces and accompaniments with dramatic life and emotional intensity, Beethoven has no peer. His single opera has a unique appeal, and a magic very much of its own – especially in its first version, the Leonore of 1804-05, where his ideas, while sometimes crude, are at their most radical.” Later, he declares that “while as a musician I can easily succumb to the sheer beauty of the new music written for Fidelio, nothing, I find, can compare with Beethoven’s original response to his material in 1805.”

Thoughts

In spite of Beethoven’s difficulties, and a compositional practice where he had to grind out many of the results, Leonore is a thoroughly absorbing drama from start to finish. Right from the call to arms of the overture the listener is gripped, the stark outlines immediately setting a tense atmosphere which only occasionally lets up when more tender love is expressed.

The use of a narrator between scenes does not check the flow of the drama – if anything it provides helpful points of context. Without the information provided by Beethoven scholars, would we have known of the difficulties he experienced in composing? As John Eliot Gardiner says, the ‘dramatic life and emotional intensity’ are always there, with relatively little padding in the plot.

What helps, too, is how easily Beethoven moves between solo arias, duets, trios and quartets – and even in the latter the use of many voices does not stop him from getting clarity. The first quartet in Act 1, Mir ist so wunderbar, is beautifully woven in together – while on the solo front, Ha! Welch is a brisk aria, led from the front by Pizarro who is in jubilant mood. Beethoven is certainly not afraid of putting his foot on the accelerator when needed.

Interestingly the operatic influences – to this ear at least – are less from his vocal training with Salieri but more from study of Handel. This is the case especially where recitatives and arias are paired, as in the finale to Act 2.

There are some genuinely thrilling moments in Leonore. The flurry of activity through the Act 2 duet between Pizarro and Rocco (Jetzt, Alter, hat es Eile!) shows the urgency of which Beethoven is capable. Auf Euch nur will ich bauen, led by Pizarro is an exhilarating trio, punchy and red blooded with a shiny brass coating. Countering this is the bleak, vivid word painting at the start of Gott! Welch dunkel, the extended scene where Florestan is down in the dungeon. It is a stark piece of writing and incredibly affecting with orchestra and emotion stripped bare, Florestan’s pain revealed for all to hear in F minor, one of Beethoven’s ‘tragic’ keys. Consolation, however, is found in the love for Leonora, expressed in a tender theme whose radiance is all the more revealing in this setting. High drama follows in the quartet, the exclamations brilliantly managed, and the top ‘C’ soprano near end of Ich Kann mich noch nicht fassen carries maximum impact.

The opera flows very naturally from one section to the next. Although this is an opera with a female hero there are a lot of steely lines for men at the start of Act 2 – none more so than the explosive arrival of Pizarro with his declamation that Ha! Welch ein Augenblück (Ha, the moment has come when I can wreak my vengeance!) Marcellina and Leonora arrive to redress the balance in a brightly cast C major. Ach brich noch is a standout aria, with sonorous horns for company, written in a higher register that looks forward to Weber and beyond. While Act 1 is described as more ‘domestic’ is it nonetheless a satisfying experience, with the arias for Marcellina and Rocco hardly throwaway. The latter’s first aria, where “if you haven’t gold as well, happiness is hard to find” is memorable.

Yet while these moments are high points, nothing quite carries the impact of The Prisoners’ Chorus. This is the dramatic apex of the work, wide-eyed wonder spreading from the jailed forces as their strength comes to the fore. Then, as Leonore learns of the likelihood of marriage, there is a breathless joy. The other many high points are the prisoners, ‘filled with loyalty and courage’ at the rousing end to Act 2, and the reveal of Leonore to Florestan, with the oboe’s involvement especially poignant. The finale is full of incident, the music eventually shifting to a pumped-up C major for a triumphant finish.

Beethoven experienced a great deal of bad fortune in the realisation of Leonore, and the opera has since proceeded under a cloud. In fact, it is only in the last 30 years or so that it has regained anything of its stature, thanks to notable recordings from John Eliot Gardiner and René Jacobs. Both these esteemed conductors have seen the qualities in the music, and how Beethoven – contrary to the opinion of some – has proved to be a great opera composer.

Recordings used

Hillevi Martinpelto (Leonore), Kim Begley (Florestan), Franz Hawlata (Rocco), Matthew Best (Don Pizarro), Christian Oelze (Marzelline), The Monteverdi Choir, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique / John Eliot Gardiner (DG Archiv)

Marlis Petersen (Leonore), Maximilian Schmitt (Florestan), Dimitry Ivashchenko (Rocco), Johannes Weisser (Pizarro), Robin Johannsen (Marzelline), Freiburg Baroque Orchestra / René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi)

Those two recordings I mentioned are both cut and thrust experiences. René Jacobs provides a leaner orchestra and much faster tempo choices, which plays to the speed of Beethoven’s creativity. For John Eliot Gardiner Matthew Best is a superbly malevolent Pizarro. Both have superb soloists – and rather than choose a favourite I would merely opt for both! You can listen on the links below:

Also written in 1805 Cherubini Faniska

Next up Leonore Overture no.2 Op.72a

Happy New Year – the year ahead on Arcana

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by Ben Hogwood, editor

As this is our first post of the year, let me take the opportunity to wish all readers of Arcana a very Happy New Year! Thanks for taking the time to visit the site, I hope you will find much of interest.

In a musical sense, 2024 promises much – and offers a great opportunity to celebrate the music of some classical composers whose anniversaries fall this year. Keep visiting for more on Gustav Holst (above, his statue in Cheltenham), Gabriel Fauré, Darius Milhaud and Nick Drake – as well as the continuation of our Beethoven 200 series, which will pick up the composer’s work where we left off, with the opera Lenore. There will also be the usual reviews of concerts and new music, playlists and interviews. The aim is to add a post each day, so if you come back to the site on a daily basis you should find something new to read – and something new to listen to.

We aim to do what Manfred Mann’s Earth Band did to Holst – and bring some joy to our readers. Wishing you a wonderful 2024!

In concert – Eduardo Vassallo, Chris Yates, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Richard Strauss – Don Quixote; Beethoven ‘Eroica’ Symphony

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Eduardo Vassallo (cello), Chris Yates (viola), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada

Richard Strauss Don Quixote Op.35 (1897)
Beethoven Symphony no.3 in E flat major Op.55 ‘Eroica’ (1803-4)

Kazuki Yamada and Tom Morris (concept), Rod Maclachlan (video design), Zeynep Kepekli, lighting design), Gustave Doré (illustrations)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 13 December 2023

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse. Photos (c) Hannah Fathers

Tonight’s concert from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra was not only the orchestra’s final concert before its Christmas season, but also the first to feature a new concept of presentation with a view to reimagining just what the concertgoing experience might be like in the future.

Not that this concept was uniformly applied to the pair of works in question. In the first half, Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote was accompanied by rehearsal and live footage relayed via screens as placed to the left, above and to the right of the platform. They gave passing insight into cellist Eduardo Vassallo’s preparing to take the stage, then kept a close watch on his interaction with violist Chris Yates – their musical repartee informing much of what follows. Less convincing was the selection from Gustave Doré who, while he died over a decade before Strauss’s work, still anticipated its concerns in his illustrations for an 1863 edition of Cervantes. These were rather generally applied over the work’s course with few references to Dulcinea who, while she does not appear in the novel, is yet a pervasive influence on the latter stages of the score.

The performance was a notable one in terms of Kazuki Yamada’s surveying this piece as a cumulatively unfolding whole – its 10 variations, each keenly characterized, framed by an increasingly ominous introduction and warmly resigned epilogue. Vassallo had the measure of what, for all its virtuosity, is essentially a concertante rather than solo part and, for which reason, tends to come off best when taken by a section-leader. Not all those frequently dense textures emerged with ideal clarity and motivic unity, which ensures formal and expressive focus as the work proceeds, could have been clearer in its climactic stages, but an essential humanity was always to the fore as Yamada perceived it. Those hearing it for the first time could hardly have failed to be impressed with Strauss’s ambition or moved by his response.

Less so, perhaps, by Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony after the interval. Here the visual element centred largely on the musicians as the account took place – except during the first movement, when a photographic roll-call of the CBSO’s ‘heroes’ (musical and otherwise) was laminated onto the music – thus robbing it of the means to transcend time and place as surely as had the composer those of revolution or Bonaparte. Elsewhere, the standing-up of individual players and sections to highlight salient aspects of the piece was rather inconsistently applied – why, for instance, did the horns not do so with their unison statement of the ‘Prometheus’ theme in the finale (Thomas Beecham did this decades ago) – while the emerging photos of orchestral members mid-way through that movement risked seeming an awkwardly sentimental gesture.

All of this might have mattered less had the reading carried consistent conviction. As it was, the opening Allegro stuck doggedly to a tempo that felt more than a little stolid – its climactic moments undermined by pauses that impeded the musical flow, though the coda yielded the right emotional frisson. The highlight was a Funeral March whose fatalism was leavened by acute pathos at its climax, with a coda whose disintegration audibly left its mark. If the outer sections of the Scherzo seemed just a little deadpan, its trio was rousingly despatched by the three horns, and the initial stages of the finale had a welcome spontaneity as the ‘Prometheus’ theme is put through its paces. A pity Yamada slowed right down for its restatement midway through, resulting in a serious loss of momentum that not even an incisive coda could regain.

Tonight’s concert was a concerted and not unsuccessful attempt to confront the issue of how to attract a younger and more inclusive audience to classical music. Where it foundered was on a misguided premise that bombarding those present with images somehow makes them listen more intently. For this to come about, they need to be encouraged to focus collective attention aurally rather than just visually – a challenge such as Symphony Hall, with its all-round excellence and its many acoustical resources, would seem ideally equipped to fulfil.

This is evidently an experimental phase for the CBSO, as various possibilities are tried out, but an emphasis on sonic enhancement, allied to the subtle if pervasive presence of lighting, is arguably one way forward and could ultimately blaze a trail for the concert of the future.

You can read all about the 2023/24 season and book tickets at the CBSO website. Click on the names for more information on conductor Kazuki Yamada, cellist Eduardo Vassallo, violist Chris Yates – and also on the names for more on Tom Morris, Rod Maclachlan, Zeynep Kepekli and Gustave Doré

Published post no.2,044 – Tuesday 19 December 2023

In concert – Sheku Kanneh-Mason, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Beethoven, Shostakovich, Walton

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Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada

Beethoven Leonore Overture no.1 Op. 138 (1807)
Shostakovich Cello Concerto no.1 in E flat major Op.107 (1959)
Walton Symphony no.1 in B flat minor (1932-5)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Saturday 16 September 2023

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Having opened the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s season two days earlier with Verdi’s Requiem, Kazuki Yamada returned for a judicious programme comprising three ‘No. 1’s’ – two mid-20th century masterpieces and an overlooked gem from the previous century.

Beethoven’s First Leonore Overture is in fact the third such piece written in conjunction with his eponymous opera, being intended for a Prague production that never materialized. Shorter in duration and simpler in design than its two ‘successors’, it sets the scene without attempting an overview of Leonore’s dramatic essence. Yamada duly made the most of an introduction as speculative as it was searching, then steered a lively course over the main Allegro – not least a surging crescendo into the coda such as Rossini had taken to heart before the decade was out.

It was with Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto that Sheku Kanneh-Mason won BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016 and thus launched a career that shows no signs of stalling. In the meantime, his take on this piece has deepened and at times darkened – the opening Allegretto exuding keen irony abetted by the incisive response from an orchestra whose single horn and double woodwind are thrown into sharp relief against modest strings. If the ensuing Moderato seemed a little measured, its stark intimacy was eloquently sustained to a yearning climax then mesmeric interplay of cello harmonics with celesta in the coda. The third-movement Cadenza emerged with real cumulative impetus, and not even the hiatus while Kanneh-Mason replaced a broken string could stem the final Allegro’s sardonic course to its decisive closing flourish.

A work that has latterly regained (at least in the UK) the reputation it enjoyed decades earlier, Walton’s First Symphony has had regular performances from the CBSO (and a recording with Simon Rattle), and this reading did not lack for commitment. Not least an opening movement such as built methodically and remorsefully from initial expectancy, through a central span of brooding stasis, to a pulverizing culmination; the only proviso being the frequent inaudibility of its underlying pulse in lower strings during the climactic stages. The scherzo seemed even finer in its tense amalgam of spite and barbed humour, its treacherous syncopation dextrously handled, while the slow movement unfolded from a wistful flute melody (affectingly rendered by Marie-Christine Zupancic) to its climax of baleful intensity subsiding into numbed regret.

The finale still tends to be seen as surrender to well-tried symphonic precedent yet, as Yamada presented it, did not eschew formal or emotional obligations. The resolute introduction, agile fugal writing and irresistible build-up to the timely appearance of extra percussion all became part of a conception vindicated by the elegiac trumpet theme (ably conveyed by Jason Lewis); leading to a peroration in which Yamada’s urging his players onward briefly risked unanimity of response while still resulting in the sheer affirmation of those thunderous closing chords.

Overall, an engrossing performance which augurs well for the CBSO’s first full season with Yamada. Next week places the spotlight on Thomas Trotter who, having done forty years as City Organist in Birmingham, takes the loft for repertoire staples by Poulenc and Saint-Saëns.

You can read all about the 2023/24 season and book tickets at the CBSO website. Click on the artist names for more information on cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and conductor Kazuki Yamada

BBC Proms 2023 – Elena Urioste, BBC NoW / Tadaaki Otaka – Rachmaninoff / Respighi, Coleridge-Taylor & Beethoven

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Prom 7 – Elena Urioste (violin), BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Tadaaki Otaka

Rachmaninoff (orch. Respighi) Five Études-tableaux (1911-17, orch 1930) [Proms premiere]
Coleridge-Taylor Violin Concerto in G minor Op.80 (1911-12)
Beethoven Symphony no.5 in C minor Op.67 (1807-08)

Royal Albert Hall, London
Wednesday 19th July 2023 [7pm]

by Richard Whitehouse photos by Andy Paradise / BBC

Tadaaki Otaka’s years at the helm of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (1987-95) were a highpoint of the latter’s history, and it was good to see and hear the rapport between them now that he is Conductor Laureate being maintained throughout this evening’s programme.

Surprising that Respighi’s orchestration of five from Rachmaninoff’s sets of Études-tableaux had not been given at the Proms, but the respective 150th and 80th anniversaries of his birth and death provided an ideal opportunity. Otaka brought out the listless calm of The Sea and the Seagulls with its death-haunted aura, then conveyed the scintillating energy of The Fair. With its evocations of Orthodox chant and heady pealing of bells towards the close, Funeral March is the most imposing and Otaka gave it its due – not least by pointing up the deadpan humour of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf which provides greatest possible contrast. The sheer effervescence of March made a fitting conclusion to a sequence that, while other orderings are possible (not least 2-1-4-3-5), is a viable and a cohesive entity in its own right.

The resurgence of interest in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor continued apace with a revival of his Violin Concerto, 111 years after its UK public premiere at these concerts. Its composer’s last major work, this is a work audibly in the Romantic tradition and while the initial Allegro gets off to a less than promising start with its blousy and over-emphatic first theme, the resource with which the soloist elaborates both this and the insouciant idea that follows is as engaging as the cadenza underpinned by drum-roll is arresting. The central Andante is the undoubted highlight, its warmly confiding main melody capable of unexpected plangency as it unfolds, then the final Allegro draws on the Afro-American inflections of Coleridge-Taylor’s heritage in a spirited discourse whose climax sees an opulent restatement of the work’s opening theme.

A testing assignment such as Elena Urioste (after last year’s Proms debut with Ethel Smyth’s Double Concerto) gave with no little panache, her vivid while modest tone heard to advantage in Tom Poster’s eloquent take on Harold Arlen’s Over the Rainbow that was given as encore.

A staple of the Proms since its very first season 128 years ago, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony comes so weighted with expectation as to make any performance in itself a provocative act. Eschewing astringency and portentousness, Otaka (rightly) rendered the initial movement as an elemental though unpredictable play on its indelible opening motif; the ensuing Andante pursuing an equally eventful course as its main theme evolves via a process of developing variation, the heroic and inquisitive held in unforced accord through to the decisive ending.

A pity that Otaka opted not to take the repeat in the Scherzo (rather than that of the finale) – its interplay between the ominous and the impetuous abetted by a transition of speculative intent. Here too there was never any risk of pomposity or overkill, Otaka steering this most visceral of symphonic finales through a development of bracing immediacy then on to a coda whose insistent C major reiterations were the outcome – no more and no less – of this movement’s innate potential. The undiminished relevance of this music was never for a moment in doubt.

For more on the 2023 BBC Proms, visit the festival’s website at the BBC. Click on the names for more information on the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Tadaaki Otaka and Elena Urioste