On behalf of the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, I am pleased to welcome composer, pianist, curator Thomas Nickell to the team this season. Thomas will be sharing some insights into our programs by offering suggested listening and reading materials that may help deepen the audience experience at our concerts.
Thomas offers ideas of material to read, listen to, and watch that gives you an insight into his thoughts on the two Beethoven works being performed at the October 17th opening concert as well as related compositions. Please enjoy the materials.
Mina Zikri, Music Director
In the case of a monumental figure such as Beethoven, it has become easy to take his influence for granted. The primary objective as listeners is to hear, digest, and ultimately be changed by what we have heard, even if that only means having spent an hour of our lives physically in a different setting. I urge that the gift of listening never be overlooked, and in the case of Beethoven, imagine that you have never heard such music (or any music) before, and attempt to understand why the world is better off to have this music (or any music) in it. This is the sort of question he would have asked himself whenever he began a new piece, why else would he have felt so compelled to continue?
READING
Beethoven’s Hair, by Russel Martin
Library - https://www.worldcat.org/tile/beethovens-hair/oclc/44016338
Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot
Beethoven Variations: Poems on a Life, Ruth Padel
Library - https://www.worldcat.org/title/beethoven-variations-poems-on-a-life/oclc/1132243134
Beethoven was One-Sixteenth Black, by Nadine Gordimer
Library - https://www.worldcat.org/title/beethoven-was-one-sixteenth-black-and-other-stories/oclc/123798168
Beethoven: The Philosophy of Music, by Theodor Adorno
Library - https://www.worldcat.org/title/beethoven-the-philosophy-of-music/oclc/40754957
Napoleon Symphony, by Anthony Burgess
Library - https://www.worldcat.org/title/napoleon-symphony/oclc/810380
The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824, by Harvey Sachs
Library - https://www.worldcat.org/title/ninth-beethoven-and-the-world-in-1824/oclc/369295668
Conversations with Beethoven, Sanford Freeman
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Conversations-Beethoven-Classics-Sanford-Friedman/dp/1590177622
Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph, Jan Swafford
Library - https://www.worldcat.org/title/beethoven-anguish-and-triumph-a-biography/oclc/925432113
The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, by Charles Rosen
Library - https://www.worldcat.org/title/classical-style-haydn-mozart-beethoven/oclc/35095841
Beethoven’s Sketches: An Analysis of His Style Based on a Study of His Sketch-Books, by Paul Mies
Beethoven: Impressions by His Contemporaries, by Oscar Sonneck
LISTENING
Alban Berg Violin Concerto
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5tW51KGQwvM
https://youtube.com/watch?v=c1uAxdFplR0
On the subject of violin concertos, Alban Berg had a lot to say. Berg’s response to the idea of composing a violin concerto himself was to include a mirror to the past. Though not a quote of Beethoven, Berg looked all the way back to Bach, quoting his choral setting of Es ist Genug.
Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto Gidon Kremer
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lwDuMmcp2jA
Gidon Kremer is a marvel to listen to in any recording, but in this interpretation of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Kremer includes an extra gem. Kremer chose to replace the more often heard cadenzas of the 19th-century with a cadenza composed by Alfred Schnittke.
John Corigliano Fantasia on an Ostinato
https://youtube.com/watch?v=PYloIvgo48E
Corigliano’s Fantasia draws on Beethoven in a number of ways, the most significant being that it is based on the Allegretto of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Beethoven was particularly famous for his unique mastery of variation form, and Corigliano found this movement to be fertile grounds for his own variation work.
Alfred Schnittke Gogol Suite
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4LTleKD4i4Q&t=682s
The Gogol Suite is a classic example of Schnittke’s sarcastic compositional style.
Anton Bruckner Symphonies Eugen Jochum
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XuhhEoW0h38
There were many composers following the death of Beethoven in 1827 that were so enamored of his work that they essentially made themselves his disciples. The feeling was that Beethoven had said everything there was to be said with his music, and that everything written after him must acknowledge this objective truth. Though the influence of Beethoven is clearly felt in Bruckner’s nine symphonies, I believe that he was the first major symphonist in the generation or two following Beethoven that broke free of the aforementioned thinking and found his own voice.
Karlheinz Stockhausen Kurzwellen mit Beethoven / Opus 1970
https://youtube.com/watch?v=mB9l_RxByoA&t=1678s
Karlheinz Stockhausen’s personality and compositional vision was unprecedented, and when considered next to Beethoven reminds listeners that creation is best served when the tendency to compare oneself to others is removed. Stockhausen composed Kurzwellen using the concept of “process” composition, which is opposed to the traditional tendency of Western music to place the individual before or above the musical content. Kurzwellen is scored for six shortwave radios, making the musical content unpredictable and non-egotistical. In 1970, Stockhausen created a new version of Kurzwellen which allowed for a new commentary, due to the fact that during that year many radio stations would be broadcasting the works of Beethoven in honor of his 200th birthday.
Louis Andriessen The Nine Symphonies of Beethoven
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1nBRJTnFOHA&t=96s
The instrumentation of this work is listed as “… for orchestra and ice-cream bell”. Maybe that is enough to tell you Andriessen’s feeling on composing orchestral music after Beethoven. It wasn’t the looming figure of Beethoven’s genius that provoked him however, but rather the idea of one musician and tradition having so much influence over everything that followed. Andriessen found a link between the Western symphonic tradition and many socio-political situations around the world. The object of this work was to bring to light the danger of a cult-of-personality appearing in any self-described “free” world.
Christopher Rouse Symphony No. 5
https://youtube.com/watch?v=cnmRIUJEb7U
American composer Christopher Rouse felt compelled while composing his own fifth symphony to acknowledge the inevitable influence of Beethoven on a symphonist’s work. Rouse had this to say, ‘The first piece of ‘classical music’ I remembering hearing — Peter and the Wolf doesn't count — was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I was six years old and had been listening to a great deal of early, new-at-the-time rock and roll; my mother said, "That's fine, but you might like this as well.’ It was a recording of the Beethoven symphony, and I remember thinking that a whole new world was opening up to me. I decided that I wanted to become a composer.” Rouse’s response to this childhood experience can be seen in the many allusions, or paraphrases, on Beethoven’s Symphony, including a direct quote of the opening motif, and an entire transmutation of the famous timpani passage linking the third and fourth movements.
Kaikhosru Sorabji Opus Clavicembalisticum
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yxcD2yo1nlI&list=OLAK5uy_nSPMIKxeUh-RRUVDqk_z4UZEpgGPyZbCQ
If nothing else, Beethoven’s legacy gave artists permission to make infinitely deep artistic statements that were no longer bound by time. Kaikhosru Sorabji brought this to an entirely new plane.
Frederic Rzewski Andante con Moto
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4OlsqAcK9vY
Frederic Rzewski subtitled this work for piano “14 variations without a theme by Beethoven.” In this unique piece, Rzewksi found a commentary on the place of tradition in modern classical composition, reminding us that we have permission to compose without precedent.
Alberto Ginastera Piano Concerto No. 2
https://youtube.com/watch?v=I77RZLQqQOQ
Alberto Ginastera claimed that his second piano concerto was inspired by Beethoven. See if you can figure out how!
Charles Ives Symphony No. 4
https://youtube.com/watch?v=aMT_EGXQwyk
Upon hearing the music of Charles Ives, many listeners would not make an immediate connection with Beethoven. Ives was a man who carried no illusions about his music, realizing at once its individuality and potential to alienate audiences. His symphonies are unique because although he was clearly attempting to engage with European tradition due to the very fact he was writing a symphony, he also managed to form a new tradition using what he saw as the still nascent world of American composition. The Symphony No. 4 is an example of just how far the symphonic form had gone by the early/mid 20th century.
Liszt/Beethoven Symphonies No. 5 and 6 Gould
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yY0t2hAI3NE
https://youtube.com/watch?v=AnS1i9bVGHU
If a person wanted to hear music in the 19th century, they would have had to attend a concert or play the music themselves. In the case of orchestral music, one would have to live near a symphonic establishment as well. Franz Liszt felt that too many people were left out of the orchestral experience because of this, so he resolved to transcribe all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies for the piano, allowing any person with access to a piano to hear this music. Glenn Gould recorded a very special interpretation of two of these Liszt transcriptions, which gave a splendid new perspective on these great works.
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Gardiner
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jUrd2WPmQfY
We all may think we know Beethoven’s Symphonies, but there are still worlds to be discovered within this music. John Eliot Gardiner has recorded all of Beethoven’s symphonies with instruments of Beethoven’s lifetime, attempting to recreate the earth-shattering experience of hearing a Beethoven symphony for the first time. I think he did a fantastic job, and hearing this music as it may have been heard originally forces us to question the modern conception of “classical authenticity”.
Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Concertos Robert Levin
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Hjy5hETRPAY&t=859s
The intrepid pianist and scholar Robert Levin brings period-performance practice to a whole new level with his recording of Beethoven’s piano concertos. Levin sought to recreate the spontaneity of the 19th-century concerto experience by creating his cadenzas on the spot. This is a rare experience for listeners in the 21st century, and one that I hope will come back into fashion in performances to come.
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 and 9
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bDzLRiU7wc4
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1sebXOFO9TI
The precedent set by Beethoven put Shostakovich in a tough spot. Stalin wanted a grand symphony which would rival Beethoven to celebrate his name, but Shostakovich wanted to preserve his artistic dignity without potentially fatal consequences. He succeeded at this with the Symphony No. 5, but cut it very close with the Symphony No. 9.
WATCHING
Robert Levin on Improvisation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVexDvUi1DA
Glenn Gould on Beethoven Sonatas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jMW446lhDo
Glenn Gould on Beethoven - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiRySfETBdg