Ravinia 2024 Issue 2

just that infinite longing which is the essence of romanticism. He is accordingly a completely romantic composer, and is not this perhaps the reason why he has less success with vocal mu- sic, which excludes the character of indefinite longing, merely representing emotions defined by words as emotions experienced in the realm of the infinite?” Thus wrote E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1813 about Bee- thoven’s dramatic Symphony No. 5 in C minor. In this work, Beethoven achieves a precarious balance between Classical form and order, and the bizarre other-worldliness of Romanticism. At the same time, the most essential elements of music—melody and rhythm—are reduced to an unprecedented level of simplicity in the opening theme, what the composer described as “Fate knocking at the door.” These kernels, cultivated in the fertile realms of Beethoven’s imagination, blossom into a musical work that has both capti- vated and confounded listeners to this day. Like many of Beethoven’s compositions, the Symphony No. 5 was slow in developing. He made plans for a symphony in C minor even before completing his Symphony No. 1 in 1800. Sketches for the eventual Symphony No. 5 be- gan in 1804 and continued sporadically for the next four years. Beethoven finished the piece in 1808, during his “heroic period,” a time when his style assumed enormous proportions under the influence of French music. However, the in- fatuation with things French was quickly (and permanently) tempered when Napoleon de- clared himself emperor and marched his troops throughout Europe, eventually twice laying siege to Vienna. Ever the political idealist, Bee- thoven felt betrayed by his hero Napoleon and in anger reportedly tore the title page from his Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) bearing a dedication to Napoleon, instead offering the work “to the memory of a great man.” There is good reason to believe that the Sym- phony No. 5 reflected a new German patriotism in Beethoven. The heroic, military sentiments in the symphony seem to be directed against the French. The published score contained a rath- er unusual dedication to two wealthy patrons of music: Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz, who already was one of three aristocrats to grant Beethoven an annual salary, and Count Andreas Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vien- na who earlier had commissioned a set of string quartets from the composer. Both of these men had strong anti-French sentiments. The first performance was a highly unusual event and by all accounts less than successful. The audience response was highly critical, and even his friends could not completely overlook the shortcomings in the program. The second performance in Leipzig enjoyed better reviews. Friedrich Rochlitz, the local music critic, found particular interest in the opening of the sym- phony. “The first movement is a very serious, somewhat gloomy yet fiery allegro, noble both in feeling and in the working-out of idea, which is handled firmly and evenly, simply with a lot of originality, strength, and consistency—a worthy movement that offers rich pleasure even to those who cling to the old way of composing a big symphony.” Beethoven had not invented a new form; in fact, throughout his career, he developed no new types of composition, with the possible ex- ception of the song cycle. The true innovation of this symphony rests in the nature of its basic thematic material. The conventional view that themes are equivalent to melodies is boldly de- fied. Rather, themes are reduced to simple in- tervallic and rhythmic patterns. From very basic musical material, Beethoven is able to sustain a complete movement. It is a miraculous display of producing more from less. A simple motive heard at the beginning is the building block. It consists of an interval (a de- scending third) and a rhythm (three repeated eighth notes followed by a long rhythmic value). Beethoven continues to derive musical materi- al from this the motive of “Fate knocking at the door.” The second theme is in E-flat major, the relative major of the key of the first theme, C minor. An expansion of the motive, a fifth rath- er than a third, produces the basic material of the introduction. The actual second theme has a lyrical expression, but even it is not devoid of the “Fate” motive, whose rhythm is now found in the accompaniment. Though a conventional development section fol- lows, it should be noted that the sense of devel- opment continues throughout the movement, since so much of the music is indebted to the “Fate” motive. In fact, the short–short–short– long pattern returns in different guises in the re- maining three movements: in the second move- ment, as part of the second theme; again in the Ludwig van Beethoven by Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld (c.1809) Scherzo , as part of its first theme; and this same music returns in the final movement as well. Overall, the Symphony No. 5 presents a com- pact, almost poetic thematic integration in the same way that verse is unified by the repetition and transformation of certain rhyme patterns. To the conservatively minded musician, this was an affront to the established musical con- ventions, something to recoil from in disgust and confusion. There were many who shared the opinion of the German composer and con- ductor Ludwig Spohr: “It has many individual beauties, but they do not add up to a whole. The very first theme, in particular, lacks the dignity essential to the opening of a symphony. … The last movement, with its empty noise, is the least satisfactory.” The inner longing and horror brought on by this Symphony No. 5 opened a Romantic floodgate that flowed unabated throughout the 19th cen- tury. Perhaps this was the fate—his own “Fate”— that Beethoven heard knocking at the door. –Program notes © 2024 Todd E. Sullivan BERNHARD SCHIMPELSBERGER Percussionist and com- poser Bernhard Schim- pelsberger has built a reputation as one of the world’s most innovative performers in the field of rhythm. Schimpels- berger studied Indian classicawl rhythms with master drummers such as Suresh Talwalkar and Trilok Gurtu, which led him to collaborate with Indian artists Anoushka Shankar (sitar), Akram Khan (dance), and Nitin Sawhney (composer) among others. His amalgamation of European and Indian rhythms, as well as his in-depth stud- ies of rhythms all around the world, have made him a much-in-demand collaborator for artists across many genres. He has worked with Span- ish flamenco dancer Israel Galvan, Palestinian Oud virtuoso Adnan Joubran, the Cuban Rum- ba group Osain der Monte, South African cellist Abel Selaocoe, and London’s Britten Sinfonia, to name a few. Schimpelsberger’s compositions explore melodic dimensions within percussion and have been commissioned and performed at Beethovenfest Bonn, the Rowing World Cup Championships in Linz, the Folkestone Trienni- al arts festival, and Malta’s National Dance Com- pany. His audio-visual music project Rhythm Diaries has led him to Cuba, Brazil, South Afri- ca, India, and across Europe, earning awards at film festivals all around the globe. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 79