LINCOLN CENTER

David Geffen Hall
New York Philharmonic

Schoenberg - A Survivor from Warsaw

Beethoven - Symphony No. 9
Alan Gilbert - Conductor
Gabriel Ebert - Narrator
Camilla Tilling - Soprano
Daniela Mack - Mezzo-Soprano
Joseph Kaiser - Tenor
Eric Owens - Bass-Baritone
Westminster Symphonic Choir, - Joe Miller, director

"Alan Gilbert conducts Beethoven’s grand Ninth Symphony, with its iconic finale, “Ode to Joy.” This symphonic celebration of universal brotherhood transports us from anguish to joy, conflict to harmony. It’s perfectly paired with Schoenberg’s powerful A Survivor from Warsaw, as both works explore, in Alan Gilbert’s words, “the triumph of faith and the indomitable nature of the human spirit.”

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, “Choral” (1824)

Writing about a cultural icon like Beethoven’s last symphony is a little like tackling a discussion about the pyramids. The work is so familiar, so monumental, so awe-inspiring that words seem irrelevant and puny. Then try to imagine what it was like at the premiere of the Ninth in Vienna on May 7, 1824. For those in attendance it must have been a shock. Though he was almost completely deaf, Beethoven provided the tempo at the beginning of each movement (but orchestra, soloists, and chorus followed the beat provided by Michael Umlauf, music director of the Imperial Theater). Beethoven had already pushed the boundaries of the symphonic genre, starting with the “Eroica,” freighting it with deep meaning and emotion never heard before; but no one had ever included vocal soloists or choral writing in a symphony. When the performance was over, reports George Marek in his Beethoven biography, it was the alto soloist Caroline Unger who “plucked [the composer] by the sleeve and gently turned him around toward the audience. When he saw what was going on, he bowed, and when the audience realized that he had heard nothing of their previous expression of enthusiasm, they redoubled it. He had to bow again and again.” Beethoven hadn’t composed a symphony for a decade, and now this transcendent work stood apart from what had gone before. And yet it still embodies the ideals we associate with his music, expressed more grandly and more beautifully than ever: the triumph over adversity, the journey from anguish to joy, from conflict to harmony, epitomized in Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” the text Beethoven set in the final movement (and which seems to have supplanted the more customary subtitle of the Ninth, “Choral”). Its poetry rings out in exultation, celebrating a world united in brotherhood and friendship—in the awe-inspiring presence of a loving Father who dwells beyond the stars—while the music’s nobility, majesty, optimism, and euphoric harmonies enfold us in a sublime embrace.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/arts/music/review-alan-gilbert-new-york-philharmonic-beethoven-ninth-symphony-schoenberg-survivor-from-warsaw.html?_r=0

Review: An ‘Ode to Joy’ Troubled by Holocaust Memories

Alan Gilbert’s tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic culminates next month with a “Concert for Unity” that will involve musicians from around the world, including Iran and Israel, China and Cuba. But the theme of unity, and its brutal opposite, also defined the first of Mr. Gilbert’s farewell programs on Wednesday night at David Geffen Hall.

The main work was Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. But Mr. Gilbert opened the concert with Schoenberg’s “A Survivor From Warsaw,” a shattering piece for narrator, male chorus and orchestra with a text drawn from the report of a Jew in Nazi-occupied Warsaw en route to extermination. “All men are brothers,” the chorus sings in Beethoven’s setting of Schiller’s idealistic “Ode to Joy” in the finale of the Ninth Symphony. Schoenberg’s “Survivor” says, “We all on the ground who could not stand up were then beaten over the head.”

Schoenberg’s piece, composed in 1947 and last played by the Philharmonic in 1974, lasts just under nine minutes, while Beethoven’s symphony is more than an hour. But in this pairing the works had comparable power, especially since they were performed without a break. That Schoenberg employs his 12-tone technique in this score is the least important thing to know about it. Sounding searing under Mr. Gilbert, the music is anguished, vehement and sometimes delicately poignant.

The narrator delivers the text, written by the composer in English and German, in Sprechstimme, halfway between speaking and singing, and the Tony-winning actor Gabriel Ebert gave a riveting account, enunciating the words with chilling crispness. A male chorus enters at the end, as the narrator describes Jewish prisoners singing a Hebrew prayer as they are marched to the gas chambers. In this performance, the men of the impressive Westminster Symphonic Choir marched down the aisles of the hall, then stood there, in the midst of the audience, to sing that prayer with stentorian fervor.

At the end, the hall went dark. When the lights came back on, Mr. Gilbert immediately began the Beethoven symphony.

For all his innovations at the Philharmonic, the most common complaint about Mr. Gilbert concerns a lack of excitement in his conducting of certain standard repertory works. His Ninth, for many, may well be a case in point. Other conductors have brought more intensity to the music. But I appreciated the clarity Mr. Gilbert drew from this fraught score. Inner details came through vividly, especially intricate tangles of counterpoint during teeming episodes of the first movement. The scherzo had lithe energy, if less mystery and suspense. The great adagio had flowing lyricism and breadth.

The excellent Westminster choir, directed by Joe Miller, sounded youthful and robust during the choral finale. And the performance had a strong quartet of vocal soloists: the soprano Camilla Tilling, the mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, the tenor Joseph Kaiser and the bass-baritone Eric Owens.