第九交响曲贝多芬 [贝多芬和第九交响曲]
时间：2018-12-27 03:33:31 来源：柠檬阅读网 本文已影响 人 
It"s a familiar tale: an aging Beethoven, ill and deaf, conducting the orchestra1 and chorus in the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, conducting even after they had ceased to perform, after they had reached the end of the stunning new work, after the audience had already began to applaud, continuing to conduct until a singer turned him around so that he could see the thunderous cheers that were resounding throughout the hall.
The image is deeply moving, so much so that more cynical historians would like to discount it; it is, they feel, too perfect to be true. Yet this once, however, the cynics2 are apparently wrong, for several eyewitnesses tell the same tale of that fateful performance in Vienna on May 7, 1824. Their stories vary somewhat in detail. Some place the dramatic moment at the symphony"s conclusion. Others maintain it occurred at the end of the scherzo. This difference of opinion might merely be credited to the passage of years between the incident itself and the day long after when those observers at last spoke to a biographer. Whenever the applause occurred, the fact that it passed unheard by Beethoven makes clear that he could never have heard a note of this most magnificent composition. Think about that bitter fact, and then wonder that a man so crossed by fate could still demand a choir to sing rapturously of joy.
Beethoven had first encountered Schiller"s poem "An die Freud" over thirty years before he completed the Ninth Symphony. The poem had first appeared in print in 1785, and from that time on was quite popular in the German states. Evidence suggests that Beethoven may have set the text to as early as 1792. Other attempts were made in 1808 and 1811, when Beethoven"s notebooks include remarks to himself conning possible settings for the familiar text. These years of toying with Schiller"s ode were also years of personal and professional growth.When he first came to know the poem, he was an optimistic young artist who had not yet composed his First Symphony, yet Beethoven"s third approach to the poem, in 1812, came with the completion of the Eighth Symphony. Perhaps the professional experience he had gained in those decades led him to consider that a poem of such spiritual power required an equally powerful setting, for he soon embarked on the creation of his Ninth Symphony, the work in which Schiller"s words would be given glorious flight.
Ten years would pass before this final symphony"s completion, ten years in which Beethoven shed blood over every note, considering and rejecting over two hundred different versions of the "Joy" theme alone. At the end of that time, he offered to the public a radically new creation that was part symphony and part oratorio3, a hybrid4 that proved puzzling to his less daring observers. The conductor Louis Spohr, who knew Beethoven, asserted privately that the piece was "tasteless," and Verdi, who, it must be admitted knew a thing or two about how to blend music and words, lamented that the grand finale was "badly set." Yet others have better understood Beethoven"s finale symphonic work, and have defended it eloquently. Let us give Claude Debude the last word: "It is the most triumphant example of the molding of an idea to the preconceived form; at each leap forward there is a new delight, without either effort or appearance of repetition; the magical blossoming, so to speak, of a tree whose leaves burst forth simultaneously. Nothing is superfluous in this stupendous5 work. Beethoven had already written eight symphonies and the figure nine seems to have had for him an almost mystic significance. He determined to surpass himself. I can scarcely see how his success can be questioned."
人们都知道这则故事:迈入老年的贝多芬,疾病缠身,双耳失聪,却成功指挥了第九交响曲的首次公演。在乐队合唱停止表演后,观众已经开始热烈鼓掌,贝多芬依然沉浸在忘我的指挥中,直到一位歌手把他转向观众,他才看到全场观众已报以雷鸣般的吹呼。
贝多芬感动了所有的人,就连愤世嫉俗的历史学家都产生了怀疑,交响曲的完美无瑕让他们不敢相信,然而这一次,那些愤世嫉俗者显然都错了,因为关于1824年5月7日那场意义非凡的演出,几位目击者讲述了同样的故事。他们的故事大同小异,一些人说戏剧性的时刻发生在交响曲结束时,而另一些人则认为是在谐谑曲结束时。随着岁月的流逝,观众不断地给传记作者讲述,这个故事不同的版本也就随之产生了。无论观众的掌声是何时响起的,贝多芬听不到掌声这一事实表明如此美妙的乐曲他从未听到一个音符。想一想这个残酷的事实,你会不禁感慨命运多舛的人居然能够指挥合唱团演唱如此欢快美妙的乐曲。
贝多芬第一次看到席勒的诗《欢乐颂》是他创作第九交响曲的30年前。1785年《欢乐颂》首次出版,从此风靡德国。有证据表明:贝多芬早在1792年就开始为这首诗配乐,1808年、1811年贝多芬继续尝试,他在笔记本里记录了关于创作配乐的种种想法。品味席勒颂诗的岁月是贝多芬个人成长、事业进步的岁月。第一次读席勒的诗时,贝多芬还是个乐观的青年艺术家,当时还没创作第一交响曲。然而到1812年第三次拜读时,贝多芬已经完成了第八交响曲。可能是多年的职业经历使他萌发了一个想法,这首饱含激情的诗应该配上震撼心灵的乐曲。贝多芬很快就开始创作第九交响曲,他要给席勒的诗句增光添彩。
最后的交响曲花了贝多芬10年的时间,在这10年里,每一个音符他都付出无数心血,曾对《欢乐颂》交响曲进行200多次的斟酌取舍。最后呈现给观众一个全新的作品,这只交响曲含有宗教元素,让那些因循守旧的人感到费解。认识贝多芬的指挥家刘易斯・斯波尔也私下评价这支曲子平淡乏味,对配乐略知一二的沃迪则哀叹宏终曲是个败笔。然而欣赏贝多芬最后交响曲的那些人则极力为他辩护。看看克劳迪・迪布斯的定论:“第九交响曲是赋予已有形式以新思想的典范,每一音符都给人不同的惊喜,没有冗余之处,没有矫揉造作之感,是一株叶与花同时绽放的神奇树木,在这个宏大乐章里没有繁缛冗余。贝多芬已经创作了八部交响曲,第九交响乐意义非凡,他要超越自我。我简直不明白人们怎能怀疑他的成功呢?”
注释:
①orchestra n.管弦乐队
②cynic n.愤世嫉俗者
③oratorio n.宗教剧
④hybrid n.混合物
⑤stupendous adj.惊人的,了不起的
