Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies are musical masterworks, unparalleled even with ‎the passing of the years. Written between 1799 and 1824, they had an unprecedented ‎influence on contemporary music of the time and formed the basis upon which symphonic ‎music of the 19th and 20th centuries would be founded. ‎

For the first time, maestro Jordi Savall conducts Beethoven’s nine symphonies at L’Auditori, a ‎project that will continue until the 2020-21 season and which begins on Friday 7 June in Sala 1 ‎Pau Casals at L’Auditori with the performance of Symphonies 1, 2 and 4. ‎


‎Savall returns to the music of Beethoven after 25 years‎
In 1994, Jordi Savall recorded Symphony No. 3, also known as the Eroica Symphony (an album ‎re-released in 2016 by Alia Vox). After this version full of colour ‎and drama, considered one ‎of the most beautiful interpretations ever created with period ‎instruments, Beethoven has ‎remained absent from the discography of the Catalan maestro. ‎

This concert, therefore, is a unique event where we will be able to listen, in a pioneering way, ‎to the rediscovery of the romanticism that pays homage to the Beethoven ‘revolution’ with ‎this first concert of the nine symphonies that will be presented in four concerts during 2019 ‎and 2020.‎

Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations offer us a performance based on historical recovery, ‎Beethoven’s tempo and musical discourse, to commemorate 250 years since the birth of one ‎of the most extraordinary geniuses of European musical culture.‎


‎Beethoven Academy 250 offers the complete series of Beethoven’s symphonies ‎‎2019 – 2020 ‎

The Beethoven Academy 250 European project, celebrating the birth of one of the most ‎extraordinary geniuses of European music culture, will see us launch a research and ‎performance project working on all 9 symphonies divided into 4 major Academies. ‎

‎2019‎
Spring 1st Academy: Symphonies 1, 2 and 4‎
Autumn 2nd Academy: Symphonies 3 and 5‎
‎2020‎
Spring 3rd Academy: Symphonies 6 and 7‎
Autumn 4th Academy: Symphonies 8 and 9‎

This project will be directed by myself and executed by an expert team of the finest ‎professionals currently specialising in instruments of the period and the repertoire: ‎concertmaster Jakob Lehmann, with the assistance of our own concertmaster Manfredo ‎Kraemer, along with a core body of professional musicians from Le Concert des Nations ‎‎(which in 2019 is celebrating 30 years since it was established!), enhanced by the inclusion of ‎some of today’s best young professional musicians, who will be selected in autumn 2018 (by ‎the 2019 Academies) and in spring 2019 (by the 2020 Academies). Out of a total of 55 ‎musicians, between 60% and 75% will be professionals from Le Concert des Nations, and 25% ‎to 30% will be young professional musicians. The call for this audition for the different ‎Academies took place before summer 2018.‎

Each Academy takes place in two, six-day stages: ‎
‎•The first, with Masterclasses and preparatory rehearsals. ‎
‎•The second, one month or three weeks later, working on the final rehearsals. ‎

All the work of the Academies and the Masterclasses will be recorded (audio and video) to ‎be subsequently used for teaching purposes. Each of the Academies will conclude with ‎concerts at concert halls. The collaborating institutions will co-produce the project, which at ‎present consist of La Saline Royale d’Arc et Senans (residence of Le Concert des Nations), the ‎Philharmonie de Paris, L’Auditori de Barcelona, CIMA (International Early Music Centre ‎Foundation, Barcelona), Barcelona Provincial Council, Barcelona City Council and Sant Cugat ‎del Vallès Town Council. Negotiations are currently underway with other European ‎institutions in Germany, Austria, Portugal, Italy, Poland and Hungary.‎

Not only will the concerts be presented at the aforementioned leading concert halls to ‎regular audiences, but we also hope to perform them in outlying neighbourhoods, towns, ‎theatres and public arenas where this type of music is never usually heard.‎

‎Project strategies and priorities ‎
‎•The recovery of European musical heritage through renewed research and performance, ‎with original 19th-century orchestra instruments.‎
‎•The dissemination of a musical culture that is intangible but essential to younger ‎generations, thanks to more than 50 years of musical experience, research and study.‎
‎•The transnational circulation of musical masterpieces.‎
‎•The transnational mobility of professional musicians and young professional musicians.‎
‎•The development of new audiences (younger) at leading concert halls.‎
‎•Likewise, the development of other audiences in new, often-overlooked or seldom-used ‎locations.‎
‎•The European added value is highlighted by the broad diversity of nationalities of Le Concert ‎de Nations orchestra musicians (French, Spanish, Italian, German, Belgian, Portuguese, ‎Austrian, Dutch, Argentinian, etc.) and the dissemination across the world of a musical ‎heritage that is essentially European, as in this case with Beethoven’s symphonies.‎
‎•All the teaching and music creation activities will be published online and recorded and ‎released on CD and DVD to ensure maximum reach.‎
‎•The performance of Beethoven’s 9 symphonies based on an informed understanding of ‎tempo, articulation, dynamics and mastery of the period instruments will facilitate the ‎discovery of a truly ‘revolutionary’ Beethoven.‎

Text by Jordi Savall
Artistic Director

‎The spirit and the senses ‎
‎Orchestral composition in the times of Beethoven ‎

Historically, the sound of the orchestra is the first element to be considered on the difficult ‎journey of bringing us closer to the musical world of Beethoven. The number of musicians ‎and composition of the orchestras at the time of Eroica were variable; for example, in Vienna ‎there was no officially-established orchestra until 1840. In 1808, the Theater an der Wien ‎orchestra consisted of 12 violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 3 double basses, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 ‎clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets and kettle drums: in other words, a total of 35 ‎musicians, whilst the first renditions of Eroica were performed by a number of musicians that ‎oscillated between 30 (Palais Lobkowitz, Vienna, 1804) and 56 (Festsaal, University of Vienna, ‎‎1808). All things considered, the sound and balance of the orchestras at that time were very ‎different to those of today.‎

In short, it could be said that the technical possibilities and the timbre of the instruments ‎were, broadly speaking, consistent with a period undergoing slow but constant evolution, ‎which had its origins in Baroque ensembles and which later, in the second half of the 18th ‎century, culminated in a form that was definitively identified as being ‘classical’ (for example, ‎the orchestra of the Theater an der Wien, in 1808).‎
Knowing his desire for perfection and hunger for progress, it could be argued that Beethoven ‎sought an ideal that went beyond the possibilities of his time. But the reality is that the ‎instruments he knew and therefore used were indeed those of his time and it is precisely ‎this limitation that marked his genius and creative power. The instruments available to him ‎did not differ much from those available to Haydn or Mozart, but his fantasy and ‎determination drove him to experiment with every possible combination of colours and ‎timbres, and explore them to their very limits.‎

Beethoven’s music – like all great music – is transcendent; its message is eternal but not ‎timeless. A characteristic has developed in its very gestation that is essentially associated ‎with its time: the style. Spirit and style are inherent to instrumental, formal and historical ‎understanding to permit the accomplishment of any meaningful interpretation.‎

What, therefore, was the effect of the modernisation of instruments that took place in the ‎second half of the 19th century and the widespread use today of metal and synthetic strings ‎‎(as opposed to strings made of gut), along with the considerable increase in number of ‎orchestra musicians?‎

It is clear that it has brought about a radical change in the shaping of technique, sound, tuning, ‎timbres, balance, dynamics, articulation, etc., and for all these reasons it constitutes an ‎evolution where these very instrumental improvements are now able to interfere in the free ‎development of the actual spirit of the music. With this in mind, advocating that the ‎orchestra for Lully should be different to that for Rameau, for Bach and Haydn, for ‎Beethoven and Mahler and so forth may seem revolutionary. Without wishing to call into ‎question or doubt the importance and legitimacy of any performance using modern ‎instruments, denying that the above-mentioned differences exist whilst maintaining one ‎single type of orchestral formation must surely give rise to serious impoverishment.‎

‎Returning to the historical sources from the time of their creation ‎

This recording, therefore, seeks to position itself within the historical context of its creation, ‎without forsaking, in doing so, the different subjective concepts that embody the ideas of ‎Beethoven and his time. We believe that the fact of placing importance on the objective ‎elements created by the natural properties of the period instruments and their technique in ‎shaping the performance process can revolutionise our perception of an incommensurable ‎universe of sound and aesthetics.‎
Amongst the objective elements, it is clear that the use of a group of instruments with gut ‎strings (between 10, 8, 6, 5, 3 for Symphonies 1, 2 and 4, and 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 for Symphonies 3, ‎‎5, 6 and 7, and 14, 12, 10, 8 and 5 for Symphonies 8 and 9) played with the technique and ‎articulation of bows of the period (prior to the Tourte model) permits greater flexibility and ‎contrast, essential for obtaining the infinity of nuances that are to be found in the Eroica ‎score. The sound of the gut string is much warmer and more resonant in the medium and low ‎registers and more piercing and aggressive in the higher ones. As gut strings are typically ‎more sensitive, the various forms of vibrato are not used continuously but rather as ‎occasional elements for expressive effect.‎
The individualisation of the timbre, that is so important in Beethoven’s music, is in perfect ‎contrast between the strings and the different wind instruments: woodwind (flutes, oboes, ‎clarinets and bassoons, still made of wood and with one or two additional keys); brass ‎‎(natural horns and trumpets without piston valves); and also kettle drums, with skin ‎membranes and hard, wooden drumsticks. In general, the timbres and instrumental colours ‎of the wind instruments – with the exception of the transverse flute – are cruder, more ‎direct and brighter, and for this reason they should never be altered in any way to obtain a ‎more compact, powerful, richer or softer overall sound. The correspondence of the ‎articulation and volume between the strings (32) and the different wind instruments (13) ‎helps develop a natural balance and clearer definition of the different counterpoint ‎interventions and dynamics.‎

At the same time, thanks to their untempered tuning, the sense of the modulations – which ‎are so important in eminently tonal music – are better understood through the hardening of ‎the chords in distant keys (tension) and through their stability (release) in the primary keys.‎

‎The essential matter of tempo‎
Being both an objective and subjective element at one and the same time, tempo, for ‎Beethoven, was always one of the primordial issues in interpretation. Schindler states in his ‎biography that, “Whenever he presented one of his works to the public, his first question ‎was always, ‘How were the tempi?’”. It is for this reason that he was a great devotee of the ‎metronome (invented by Mälzel shortly after 1800), and why in many of his works he ‎completed the customary tempo indications – Allegro con brio, Allegro vivace, Allegro molto, ‎etc. – with the corresponding metronome mark values. In 1817, the Allgemeine musikalische ‎Zeitung in Leipzig published ‘The tempi of the movements of all the symphonies of Herr L. ‎van Beethoven’. Whilst some of these values have been a point of contention, in the case of ‎the Eroica Symphony the tempi indicated – although quite fast – appear to be mostly ‎possible, providing they are performed with the flexibility that the musical discourse and ‎acoustic conditions require.‎

Beethoven spoke to us about this flexibility, without which expression cannot exist, when, ‎also in 1817, he wrote on the autograph of his Nord oder Süd Lied: “100 according to Mälzel; ‎but this must be held applicable to only the first measures, for feeling also has its tempo, and ‎this cannot be entirely expressed in this figure (100)”.‎


‎The restoration of the original nuances and the spiritual dimension of the ‎performance
‎‎
Finally, within the fully subjective field of interpretation, especially from the analytical ‎perspective, the method of approaching the various issues concerning the very conception ‎of articulation and phrasing, and the realisation of all the nuances and dynamic and agogic ‎indications, is also critical. This is also based on the perception of formal, rhythmic and tonal ‎relationships that are inherent in the music, without forgetting that much of the dramatic ‎tension is derived from the difficulties demanded by a technique that often went beyond ‎the normal possibilities of the time.‎

With regard to the spiritual dimension of the interpretation, we are now faced with the ‎problem that is the most transcendental and difficult to determine: how to decipher and ‎recreate the composer’s expressive intentions and communicate the spirit of the work to ‎listeners without distorting or betraying the objective elements that define it as such.‎

We all know that Beethoven was a brilliant improviser. At the same time, the extraordinary ‎intensity in the drafts of his works shows us the spectacular and obsessive efforts he made in ‎order to succeed at making each of his compositions as brilliant as possible. It is for this ‎reason that the great difficulty in Beethoven’s music lies, in all probability, in this fragile ‎balance between the uncontrollable might of a Prometheus who unthinkingly struggled to ‎bring divine fire to mankind whilst knowing full well he would have to pay the price of being ‎shackled to construct the forms of an art that would only be liberating when they had ‎become “le plus beau lien des peuples plus éloignés” (“The most beautiful link between the ‎most distant peoples”). Letter 1080 from Beethoven to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music ‎in Stockholm. Vienna, 1 March 1823 (written in French).‎
Jordi Savall
Bellaterra, 4 January

‎Concert production and performers ‎
LE CONCERT DES NATIONS ‎
BEETHOVEN ACADEMY 250‎

Jakob Lehmann concertino
Manfredo Kraemer assistant concertino
Guadalupe Del Moral, Ricart Renart, Elisabet Bataller, Ignacio Ramal*, Ángela Moro*, Noyuri ‎Hazama*, Andrej Kapor* and Sara Balasch* first violins and Mauro Lopes lead second violins
Alba Roca, Santi Aubert, Kathleen Leidig, Gabriele Pro*, Victoria Melik*, Angelika Wirth* and ‎Karolina Habalo* second violins
Éva Posvanecz lead viola
David Glidden, Giovanni De Rosa, Fumiko Morie*, Iván Sáez* and Núria Pujolràs* violas
Balázs Máté lead cello
Antoine Ladrette, Jérôme Huille, Marc Alomar* and Dénes Karasszon* cellos
Xavier Puertas lead double bass
Michele Zeoli, Mariona Mateu* basses
Marc Hantaï and Yi-Fen Chen transverse flutes
Paolo Grazzi and Josep Domènech oboes
Francesco Spendolini and Joan Calabuig clarinets
Josep Borràs and Joaquim Guerra bassoons
Thomas Müller and Javier Bonet horns
Jonathan Pia and René Maze trumpets
Pedro Estevan kettle drums
Luca Guglielmi assistant conductor

JORDI SAVALL DIRECTION

‎*Professional students‎

ACADEMY COLLABORATORS (from 29 April to 4 May 2019): Alaia Ferran viola | Pablo Sosa and ‎Luis Martínez transverse flutes | Miriam Jorde and Olga Marulanda oboes | Lars Bausch ‎horn| Ana Nicolás kettle drums