Ode to Freedom: Symphony No. 9
Leonard Bernstein's historical concert in celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 has long become almost as legendary as the revolutionary moment that it celebrated. Recorded at the beautiful Schauspielhaus right on Gendarmenmarkt in the centre of Berlin on Christmas 1989, it has now become available on DVD, along with a short documentary film as bonus. The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 1989 unleashed a wave of democratisation in Central and Eastern Europe that radically transformed the world order and Leonard Bernstein spontaneously accepted an invitation to conduct a performance to mark this new era. It was only fitting that East Germany's new-found freedom should be celebrated with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The monumental work, perhaps the world's most famous Symphony, was inspired by Schiller´s poem "Ode to Joy", a passionate eulogy to freedom. Adding to the symbolism of the event, Bernstein conducted an orchestra and chorus formed from musicians from both East and West Germany (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden), as well as the United States (New York Philharmonic), Great Britain (London Symphony), France (Orchestre de Paris) and the Soviet Union (Orchestra of the Kirov Theater).Product Details
Editorial Reviews
MusicWeb-International
Bernstein is a master theatricalist in his conducting; he sweats, grimaces, smiles, swoons, leaps, and crouches, his stick technique is at many points firm and decisive, at others floppy and vague...The experience of watching and listening to this performance will go some way to enable us all, German or non-German, to relive those truly momentous days.
Customer Reviews
Ode to the crumbling Wall
This monumental Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is given here with a monumental chorus, a monumental orchestra, for a monumental occasion: the fall of the Berlin Wall. The performers are conducted by Leonard Bernstein, who died a few years after this concert.To give appropriatness to the occasion, Mr. Bernstein had the bass soloist substitute the word Freihit (Freedom) for the usual Freude (Joy) in the opening of the fourth movement Many reviewers before me have dissected this performance in more detail than I care to give. Suffice it to say that it is an electrifying performance, brought about, probably, by the emotional music performed on an emotional occasion. This is a historical concert and should be in everyone's collection
mixed quality
Bernstein was past his height when he conducted this performance, and definitely showing his age, but it is still Beethoven's Ninth and it is well worth seeing.
A word of warning however: the quality of the vision on this DVD is particularly poor. Often the film is out of register, leaving ghostly lines around performers, and just a blurred mess when the orchestra is viewed as a whole. Frequently it is hard to see the nuances of Bernstein's facial expression because of this problem.
But the strength of this performance is its raw passion. It is not clinically perfect, but very moving.
To see Bernstein at his best, it is hard to beat his set of the Mahler symphonies - recorded in the mid 1970s..
The last Symphonic Opus: a relevant historical document!
This symphony is not only a huge and variegated tapestry of cosmic thinking, emblematic poetry and sublime penchant. Each one of the movements expresses much more than words can say. But what Bernstein legated us in 1989 with motive of the fall of Berlin's wall when was the first conductor to argue with reasonable evidence, the famous "Ode to joy" should be changed as "Ode to freedom" , because basically while the joy is an emotion, the freedom is a value. Under this point of view, the movement reacquires a still major connotation.
The more you listen Beethoven's Ninth, the more one realizes how difficult is to conduct brilliantly the famous Adagio without falling into sentimentalist outbursts of cheap exhibitions.
This was no more nor less the first recording that kept in mind this argument.
So, don't miss this DVD that defined a before and an after at the moment to judge, appreciate and listen this Op. 125.
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