UID:
almafu_9961519494602883
Format:
1 online resource (446 pages)
Edition:
1st ed.
ISBN:
1-83765-156-6
Content:
Brings to life the day-to-day details of staging the premiere of one of the most iconic works of Western classical music.The Ninth Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven with its final choral movement is one of the iconic works of Western classical music. And yet, the story never fully told concerns the months leading to the symphony's world premiere in Vienna on 7 May and repeat performance on 23 May 1824. In his new book, Theodore Albrecht brings to life the day-to-day details that it took to stage that premiere. It's a story of negotiating for performance halls and performers' payments, of hand-copying legible scores and individual parts for over 120 performers, of finding financiers, as well as space and time for rehearsals. Importantly, it is also a story of the relationship between Beethoven and the musicians who performed this symphonic masterpiece. In fact, as the maddening rehearsal schedule towards the symphony's premiere shows, it transpires that many passages of the Ninth have been tailored to specific orchestral players.Many modern-day musicians will recognize familiar situations in rehearsals, many scholars and students will relish unprecedented new detail. All this comes to the fore by reconstructing the story drawing on the (almost) deaf composer's Conversation Books which Beethoven had been using since 1818. In the performance story of the Ninth Symphony's premiere, Albrecht makes full use of these invaluable documents, which are now being translated for the first time into English in a series of 12 volumes published by the Boydell Press.
Note:
Intro -- Beethoven's Ninth Symphony -- Beethoven's Ninth Symphony -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 Composition of the Ninth Symphony -- Chapter 2 Petition, Preparations, Copying -- Chapter 3 Finding a Location -- Chapter 4 Final Preparations/First Rehearsals -- Chapter 5 Rehearsals and Confusion -- Chapter 6 Premiere and Celebratory Dinner -- Chapter 7 One More Time -- Chapter 8 Second Premiere and Financial Reality -- Appendix A Anton Schindler's Acquaintance with Beethoven (March, 1814-May, 1824) -- Appendix B The Ludlamshöhle Petition, Late February, 1824 -- Appendix C Vienna's Principal Theaters and Halls in Beethoven's Time -- Appendix D Orchestral Personnel, Kärntnertor Theater, 1822/1824 -- Appendix E Choral Personnel, Kärntnertor Theater, 1822/1824 -- Appendix F Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde's Volunteer Sign-Up Sheet, 1824 -- Appendix G Schindler's Account of Beethoven's Post-Akademie Dinner in the Prater -- Bibliography.
Additional Edition:
Print version: Albrecht, Theodore Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Woodbridge : Boydell & Brewer, Incorporated,c2024
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1515/9781837651566
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