BEETHOVEN
CORIOLAN OVERTURE
SYMPHONY NO. 5
KLAUS TENNSTEDT conductor
LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
CORIOLAN OVERTURE
Until the late eighteenth century, overtures were usually
little more than musical announcements that an opera or
a play was about to begin, a way of silencing the audience.
Rarely was their content affected much by the events of
the ensuing drama, and it was only with Gluck’s ‘reform
operas’ of the 1770s that overtures began to attempt on
a more regular basis to encapsulate what was to follow.
So influential was the change, however, that by the early
1800s Beethoven’s most dynamic overtures – those to
the plays Coriolan, Egmont and The Ruins of Athens, to
the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, and the several
attempts at an overture to the opera Fidelio – soon
acquired a concert life of their own. In effect, they had
become the earliest examples of one of the nineteenth
century’s favourite forms, the symphonic poem.
The overture that Beethoven provided for Coriolan, a fiveyear-old tragedy by his friend Heinrich von Collin, was
actually performed a couple of times as a concert piece
in the month that preceded its appearance at a revival
of the play in April 1807. Collin’s drama had its origins in
Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and, though differing from it
in several respects, presented the same dilemma of the
Roman general who has rebelled and is now leading an
attack on Rome itself. On the point of victory he lays down
his arms so that his mother, Volumnia, can be spared –
a moment of military weakness that eventually drives him
to suicide.
Beethoven’s Overture focuses on the conflict between
the arrogant soldier – shown in the truculent opening
chords and urgent string motif – and the pleadings of
his mother as represented by the tender second theme,
rising step by step as her beseeching intensifies. In
Shakespeare, Coriolanus was killed by his own followers
for his disloyalty, but that Beethoven’s concern, like Collin’s,
was for the effect of the hero’s failings on his own mind, is
shown at the end. Here, Volumnia’s theme makes its third
and last appearance, not rising this time but switching
with greater urgency to the minor, with the result that
Coriolanus capitulates in a broken version of the opening.
As the once-proud chords lose their way and the string
motif shrivels to nothing, the general’s fall is quiet and
ignominious.
SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN C MINOR
Whatever the Fifth Symphony was to its earliest audiences,
it was not comfortable. Those who took their seats in
Vienna’s Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808 for
the concert at which the work was first performed would
doubtless have had some idea what to expect. Anyone
who had already heard the ‘Eroica’, or indeed the ‘Pastoral’
Symphony, which was also premiered earlier in the same
concert, would have known that Beethoven had greatly
expanded the timescale of the symphonic form, raised its
level of seriousness and expressive weight, and brought to it
an increasingly theatrical, even narrative strain. But few can
have been prepared for the brusque, almost visceral assault
this unique work was to make on their senses.
Where did it come from? Well, Beethoven was a
revolutionary of course, but he was one who worked within
an established tradition, and who was subject to his fair
share of influences. Several of these come together in the
Fifth Symphony. One was Mozart, with whom he shared
a special feeling for the expressive power of the key of
C minor; another was the large-scale, open-heartedly
bombastic music composed for the public celebrations of
Revolutionary France; and a third was Haydn, his teacher,
who time and time again had shown in his string quartets
and symphonies how to construct whole movements from
small but highly pregnant thematic cells.
This last influence is undoubtedly at its most potent in the
highly dramatic first movement, totally dominated as it is
by its famous four-note opening motif. Not that it sounds
in any way like Haydn. The music here is astonishingly terse,
pared down to the melodic minimum, and the second
theme, a relaxed horn-call expansion of the main motif
answered by a reassuring embrace from the violins and
woodwind, is quickly upon us. Yet it is this consolatory
theme which, after a combative central development
section, reappears in swirling, nightmarish transformation
in the movement’s long and turbulent coda.
There is more than a hint of Haydn’s influence, too, in the
slow second movement, which has the overall shape of
one of his favourite forms, the ‘double variation set’ in
which two themes are varied in alternation. The second of
Beethoven’s themes provides occasional brief foretastes
of the exultant mood of the finale, but at the end of this
particular movement it is the more graceful first theme that
wins the day.
As in the Fourth Symphony, Beethoven does not call the
third movement a scherzo, though in form and function it
is one. If there is humour here, however, it is of a grim cast
and beset by uncertainty. When a sturdier theme emerges,
it is brief and troubled, dominated by a balefully intoned
horn-call transformation of the four-note motif from the
first movement. The mood lightens in the scurryingly
fugal major-key ‘trio’ section (heard twice), but at its
second reappearance the first theme, played pizzicato and
pianissimo, takes on a stealthy, nocturnal character, before
leading us to the most celebrated passage in the whole
Symphony. Here, over held string notes and sinister tappings
from the timpani, wisps of the first theme are heard,
leading us for the moment we know not where. Gradually
the excitement rises, until with a last sudden rush we find
ourselves propelled into the blazingly triumphant C major
of the finale. It is one of the most upliftingly theatrical
moments in all music, and the unequivocal joyfulness of
the ensuing movement (almost unremittingly loud, by the
way, and reinforced for the purpose by Beethoven with
trombones, piccolo and double bassoon) is not even diverted
by the brief, perhaps mocking reapparance about halfway
through of the third movement’s main theme, this time
gloriously overcome.
Whether one feels the Fifth Symphony as a journey from
darkness to light, a depiction of adversity overcome, or as an
emergence from some sort of underworld, there is no doubt
that it has an effect on the listener that goes beyond the
appreciation of its musical and formal niceties. Beethoven
himself has left little clue as to what the Symphony is
‘about’, save for a possibly apocryphal remark to a friend
about the first movement: ‘thus Fate knocks at the door’. Yet
we know that he thought of many of his instrumental works
in programmatic terms; whether or not we as listeners
can guess them correctly, the fact that in his greatest
symphonies we can sense them so strongly is proof of his
success.
© Lindsay Kemp
KLAUS TENNSTEDT
conductor
Born in East Germany, Klaus Tennstedt studied at the
Leipzig Conservatory and conducted throughout his native
land but it was not until he moved to the West in 1971
that he started to achieve world recognition. He made his
American debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in
1974 and his London debut was with the London Symphony
Orchestra in 1976, his debut with the London Philharmonic
Orchestra following in 1977. He had an instant rapport with
the London Philharmonic Orchestra that resulted in return
invitations and his appointment as the Orchestra’s Principal
Conductor and Music Director in 1983. This developed into
a unique and remarkable relationship until illness finally
brought it to a premature end some ten years later. Klaus
Tennstedt died in 1998.
‘Nobody listens to Beethoven quite like Klaus Tennstedt. And,
because he listens so acutely, his orchestra must, and we in the
audience do as well. The dark glass of familiarity is swept aside
and we meet the composer face to face.’
Hilary Finch, The Times, February 1992.
Tennstedt was particularly renowned for his performances
of the German repertoire, which he conducted regularly with
the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival
Hall and in the recording studio to huge public acclaim. His
energy, musicianship and emotional involvement combined
with a rare humility endeared him to audiences and
musicians alike.
© Richard Holt
LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s
finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history
with its present-day position as one of the most dynamic
and forward-looking ensembles in the UK. This reputation
has been secured by the Orchestra’s performances in the
concert hall and opera house, its many award-winning
recordings, trail-blazing international tours and wideranging educational work.
Hall in London, where it has been Resident Orchestra since
1992, giving around 30 concerts a season. Each summer
it takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival
Opera where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for
over 50 years. The Orchestra performs at venues around
the UK and has made numerous international tours,
performing to sell-out audiences in America, Europe, Asia
and Australasia.
Founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, the Orchestra
has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest
conductors, including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink,
Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir
Jurowski was appointed the Orchestra’s Principal Guest
Conductor in March 2003, and became Principal Conductor
in September 2007.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its first
recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first
public performance. It has recorded and broadcast regularly
ever since, and in 2005 established its own record label.
These recordings are taken mainly from live concerts given
by conductors including LPO Principal Conductors from
Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti and Tennstedt, to
Masur and Jurowski. lpo.org.uk
The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival
© Benjamin Ealovega / Drew Kelley
Klaus Tennstedt on the London Philharmonic Orchestra Label
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8
LPO-0026
LPO-0068
Brahms: Symphonies Nos.
1&3
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Mahler: Symphony No. 8
LPO-0008
LPO-0032
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6
& Egmont Overture
LPO-0052
LPO-0085
For more information or to purchase albums, telephone +44 (0)20 7840 4242 or visit lpo.org.uk/recordings
Haydn: The Creation
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
019:29
Coriolan Overture, Op. 62
32:53
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
0207:41
Allegro con brio
0310:48
Andante con moto
0405:14Allegro
0509:10
Allegro presto
KLAUS TENNSTEDT conductor
LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
David Nolan leader
Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL,
and the ROYAL ALBERT HALL London
LPO – 0087