Beethoven: Choral Fantasy, (Barnatan, Shelley)

Is this work kitsch as hell? Well, yes. Do its seams show? Well, sometimes. Is it one of the most joyous, life-affirming, indispensable things Beethoven ever wrote? Also yes. There possibly is no other work (Bolero, perhaps?) that illustrates how silly it can be to think of music as ink on a page, or even ideas in the head, because so much of what is in here that looks ordinary (even crude) is aurally extraordinary. For a work that began life as a jury-rigged concert-closing crowd-pleaser, and whose individual parts (outside the piano opening) don’t especially impress, the ’s got a *lot* going for it. For a start: structure. For one reason or another, Beethoven always got this right. At first glance, this work is absurd – a 3-minute introduction followed by a 15-minute “Finale”. But the “Finale” is in fact very neatly structured: a theme and variations packaged into sonata form, with the recapitulation featuring added choir and solo voices (a stunt B. repeated in his 9th Symphony). The work also features consistently clever thematic manipulation, and its most poignant passages (Var.7, the transition into the Finale’s recap) all feature transformations of the main theme so deft and organic they easily pass unnoticed. Added on to this of course is the sheer variety of Beethoven’s writing: there’s the disarming intimacy of the opening variations, which gently guide you through small constellations of instruments, exploring their colours; there follow concertante passages, lyrical explorations in B and A major, a march, and eventually, the ecstatic exuberance of the final variations (with canons in the mix, because why not?). In the end, though, the loveliest quality of this work is the total, anti-ironic earnestness of Beethoven’s writing. There’s lots of places here that could be mentioned, but my favourite is the climax of this work (19:03) in which Beethoven highlights the word “Kraft” (“strength”) with a unexpected chromatic mediant shift to Eb. It’s a great moment, and Beethoven evidently likes it so much that, instead of ending the work right after, he quite deliberately circles back and repeats a good bunch of preceding material so that he can present the moment to the audience again. (More evidence: when Beethoven wrote to Breitkopf & Härtel to suggest obtaining a new text for the libretto, he asked that the word “Kraft” or something similar had to be kept in its place.) The two performances here have accompanied me on the way to work for quite a few years now – few works lift my mood this well. Barnatan (accompanied by the ASMF) has a unassuming, natural style, so that it only gradually creeps up on you how excellent this recording is. The opening, in fairness, is hair-raisingly dramatic – Barnatan summons a huge sound, and his rubato is cunningly judged (that little pause on the first RH chord, and the drastic slowdown on the octave descent in each bar). There are also nice details in the introduction, such as the clearly projected RH inner line at 3:07. But if I were forced to generalise, I’d say that the focus here is on generating an unaffected, direct line to the music. There are some very nice results: the A major variation is extraordinarily tender, and in the finale at 18:08 the sudden shift in metric gear is very audible. Shelley (accompanied by the Orchestra of Opera North, which really should be much more well-known) is vibrant, alert, improvisatory. I’ve not heard a recording of the that exceeds this one for sheer happiness. Right from the opening the contrast with Barnatan is clear; Shelley accelerates on the rising semiquavers, and entire Adagio is faster, laden with tension. The sense of improvisation persists even after the entrance of the orchestra – in Var.1, for instance, the tempo shifts to emphasise the contour of the semiquaver line. Shelley also tends to highlight interesting detail, such as the piano’s staccato/slur-staccato articulation in Var.8, or the punchy martial accents in Var.9. In the final variations, the voices are more extroverted and present than in Barnatan’s account, and feature liberal use of vibrato – this makes for the most fun I’ve heard, and the entry of the entire choir in is breathtaking. Barnatan: 00:00 – Adagio 03:49 – Finale, Part 1 (Vars. 1-5) 08:53 – Finale, Part 2 (Vars. 6-9) 15:19 – Finale, Part 3 (Vars. 10-12) Shelley: 19:43 – Adagio 23:00 – Finale, Part 1 (Vars. 1-5) 27:45 – Finale, Part 2 (Vars. 6-9) 33:49 – Finale, Part 3 (Vars. 10-12)