Reviewing Beethoven: How Newspapers Greeted the Greatest Piece of Music Ever

By: Greg Mitchell Many newspapers are getting rid of their own film critics, to save money, and going with syndicated stars. Unfortunately, this makes a certain sense, if you have to cut, because in most cities there are few ?local? films to review. No such luck, however, when it comes to live music reviews, from pop to opera, which presumably, and rightly, continue on.

So you can pick up your paper this weekend and read about Kelly Clarkson in a big hall or Joe Jazz Pianist in a little club. But ever wonder how newspapers reviewed the debut of the greatest piece of music (and one of the top achievements in any art form) ever created by man or woman?

Here?s a sampling of how the critics greeted the May 7, 1824, premiere of Beethoven?s monumental and revolutionary Ninth Symphony in Vienna. Amazingly, the performance was thrown together in a few days with just two full rehearsals, despite the difficulty of the piece ? and the unprecedented addition of a 90-voice choir for the ?Ode to Joy? finale, with words by Schiller.

If you want to get a video glimpse of it, check out the DVD of the recent film ?Copying Beethoven? starring Ed Harris as the deaf Ludwig Van (as Alex in ?A Clockwork Orange? would put it). It?s a weak film, my droogies, but the twenty minutes devoted to the premiere is wonderful. There are glimpses of it also in the earlier, equally disappointing film, ?Immortal Beloved,? starring Gary Oldman.

Here are excerpts from the reviews, taken from the paperback ?Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony,? by David Benjamin Levy (Yale). One further note: reviews of the first performances of the Ninth in London a little later were wholly negative.
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from Bauerle?s Allgemeine Theater-Zeitung:

?Imagine the highly inspired composer, the musical Shakespeare, to whom all means of his arts readily are available at the slightest wave of his hand, how, in the innermost belief in the holy work of redemption, he sings God?s praises and the hope of humanity?.The most earnest wish of a large public is that these works of art that so beautifully reveal the divine in human nature, be heard again soon. May this be fulfilled!?
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A review in Leipzig?s Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung:

?Herr Kapellmeister Umlauf directed with the baton, and the composer himself participated in the general direction of everything. He stood, mainly, by the side of the presiding marshall and indicated the beginning of each new tempo, following his original score, because due to his hearing deficiency, the higher enjoyment was sadly denied him.

?But where can I find the words to relate to my readers?And still the effect was indescribably great and magnificent, jubilant applause from full hearts was enthusiastically given the master, whose inexhaustible genius revealed a new world to us and unveiled never-before-heard, never-imagined magical secrets of the holy art!...

"The critic now sits with regained composure at his desk, but this moment will remain for him unforgettable. Art and truth celebrate here their most flowing triumph, and with right one could say: no plus ultra! Who, in fact, could succeed in excelling these unnameable moments!

"Even the work's most glowing worshippers and most inspired admirers are convinced that this truly unique finale would become even more incomparably imposing in a more concentrated shape, and the composer himself would agree if cruel fate had not robbed him of the ability to hear his creation."
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From a correspondent for Caecilia:

?The greatest artist of our time proved that the true artist knows no standstill. Forward, upward, is the watchword, his battle cry?Beethoven has once again forged himself!?