Fantasy [antikvár]

Beethoven: Choral Fantasy, Op. 80Beethoven's Phantasy for piano, orchestra and chorus, opus 80, owes its origin to one of those public concerts called "Academies", which Beethoven sometimes arranged at his own expense and risk in order to acquaint the general public with his newest compositions. The programmes of these "Academies" were to our modem tastes over-long. Thus, at the famous Academy of the fifth of April 1803, in the Theater an der Wien, the first and second symphonies, the C-minor piano concerto and the oratorio "Christ on the Mount of Olives" were performed. The full rehearsal held on the same day lasted, with only a short interval, from eight in the morning until late in the afternoon. For his Academy on the 22nd December 1808, also in the Theater an der Wien, Beethoven chose the fifth and sixth symphonies (both first performances), the G major, piano concerto, the aria "Ah pérfido" and three movements from the C-major Mass. In addition he improvised freely on the piano; while, shortly before the concert, he conceived the idea of concluding the whole "with a brilliant finale." This finale was the Choral Phantasy, which was composed in what was for him an unbelievably short period of time, during the second half of December 1808. The concert lasted a full four hours. How the Choral Phantasy was received we do not know. The very brief time between the work's completion and first performance did not allow adequate rehearsal; the result was a complete breakdown, about which several witnesses have given lengthy and often conflicting accounts. These accounts are printed in volume 3 (1923) pages 82-84 and 109-112 of the monumental Beethoven biography by Thayer/ Deiters/Riemann. ^At the first performance, the introduction for piano alone, as we know it today, was still missing and we cannot tell whatsort of opening the work then had. There exist drafts for piano alone, (but these have nothing to do with the final introduction), and further drafts for string orchestra; it is not impossible that an introduction for piano and orchestra was originally planned. For more details see the "Revisionsbericht" under (c). Due to the work's unfinished state on that occasion, Beethoven may have begun the introduction with an extempore improvisation.Beethoven took the theme of the variations (bars 61 and ff.) from the song "Gegenliebe", which he had composed in his first years in Vienna. *According to Czemy's evidence the poet Christopher Kuffner composed the text to suit Beethoven's instructions, a few days before the performance and fitted it to the chorus parts which had already been written out. In this case some very awkward questions arise. Firstly, we do not find the text of the Choral Phantasy in Kuffher's collected works; this however need not completely rule out his authorship, since one can well imagine that the poet would deliberately exclude from his original work verses written to another's requirements and set to music which was already composed. But how does it happen then that in the sketchbook of the Choral Phantasy (more about this later) there are words different from those in the printed score, apart from the two last lines of the printed poem? How do these last come into the rough draft, if the poem was first supplied by the poet after the composition was completed? And who is responsible for the words which differ from the printed score? Thayer/Riemann (op. cit. p. 110) suspects that in the case of the strange words "Wollt ihr mit uns gehen, so wollen wir euch sehen" and, in another place, of the words "Hört ihr wohl?" (instead of "schmeichelnd hold") they