COVER STORY

BEETHOVEN IN BANGKOK A NIGHT OF TITANS
This year complete two hundred years since Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, cause enough for worldwide celebrations! Bangkok, thanks to the enthusiasm of it’s many musicians, will join music lovers of the world in these festivities with the performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Beethoven is one of the greatest composers, and his music is timeless in that it fascinated his contemporaries as much as it has all generations after him. His personality has sparked discussions continue with until today: some worship him as a hero, others see him as a ruffian. He was a product of his time, although his achievement raises him far above most of his contemporaries.

He was born 19 years before the French Revolution and became a convinced Republican. He dedicated his Third Symphony to Napoleon, because he believed Napoleon would bring freedom of oppression to the countries of Europe. When Napoleon crowned himself Emperor and embarked on the traditional course of government oppression, Beethoven eradicated his name from the title page of the Third Syphony and he did it in such fury that he tore the paper in the process. Fury is still considered one of his main characteristics, but this was only outward appearance.

He was tempestuous sometimes, but Goethe said of him: “A more concentrated, more energetic, and more responsive artist I have never met. I can well understand he must stand a stranger against the world.”

The Austraian poet Grillparzer wrote in his obituary: “Because he seluded himself from the world, they called him hateful, and because he shunned emotion, heartless. But he who knowns himself to be hard, does not flee! The excess of emotion shuns emotion! If he fled the world , it was because in the innermost depths of his loving heart he could not find a weapon to oppose the world; if he withdrew from the company of people, he did so after he had given everthing to them and received nothing in return.

He remained alone, because he did not find a second ONE. Yet until he died he preserved a human heart for all men, and a fatherly heart for his family.”

His love for the world is expressed most clearly in the crowning choral conclusion of the Ninth Symphony, Where the chorus falls in with the triumphant words of Schiller’s “Ode To Joy,” Which itself is one of the purest expressions of the cosmopolitan feelings of German thinkers at the turn of the 18th to the 19th centuries.

The first performance of this Symphony in the Vienna of 1824 may in some way also he regarded as the crowning success of his life. It was received with enthusiastic applause—the public at last had recognized his genius, even if it didn’t yet understand all of Beethoven’s innovations.

What was new about his music? Unlike earlier composers, Beethoven developed a dialectic style with conflicting contrasts in close juxtaposition of themes or even within the themes itself. His temperament shows itself also in the marginal notes and directions, especially those of dynamic nature. Both, contrasting themes and greater subjectivism as expressed in the dynamism of his music, clearly reflect the turbulent political, social and philosophic developments of his age. The conflicting ideas of the time of the French Revolution, of German idealism (Beethoven was a contemporary of the philosophers Kant, Hegel, Fichte, and Schelling and knew their works), of the classicists Goethe and Schiller and of the new romantic movement form the background of his music and contributed to its formation.

Beethoven, of course, is not a sudden occurrence. He is part of a long tradition. He learnt from Haydn and Mozart, and in both these composers wa can detect the beginnings of his dialectic style. And Beethoven himself has been a continuous influence in Western European music. His example and his music has haunted contless composers who aspired to similar heights of musical imagination.

When Anton Bruckner shortly before his death in 1896 realized that he would not be able to complete his Ninth Symphony he suggested to his heirs to round it off with his Te Deum and so give it a choral conclusion similar to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

On November 26th, 27th, and 28th both these works, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Anton Bruckner’s Te Deum will be performed at the National Theater. It will be the first time that such an ambitious program will be performed in South-East Asia. And this is only possible because many organizations and individuals were willing to cooperate and sacrifice time and money for this undertaking.

The great orchestra necessary for the performance of these works consists of 35 string players of the Royal Thai Navy Orchestra, 28 string players of the Fine Arts Department, 13 string players of the Pro Musica orchestra, and 28 wind players of the 13th US Air Force Band, Manila, These musicians will be joined by the Bangkok Combined Choir, Wich comprises 168 singers, and seven soloists.

For the chance to listen to these great works performed by local musicians thanks are due to the Royal Thai Navy and The Fine Arts Department Who allowed their musicians to rehearse with Mr. Mommer during their duty hours in the rehearsal room of the Fine Arts Department. Thanks are due also to Mrs. Mary Chaffee, and the many singers of the Bangkok Combined Choir, to Captain Whittenton of the 13th US Air Force Band and the Embassy of the United States, and to the soloists, all of Whom will help to make these performance a success.

Last but not least thanks are due to the about one hundred people who have contributed to the Pro Musica Fund and by doing so have enabled the members of the Pro Musica Orchestra to rehearse four times a week with Mr. Mommer in the German Cultural Institute.

With these contributions it was possible to create nucleus of good string players who are able to play demanding wroks. This week’s performances will certainly show the remarkable progress these musicians have made since the performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Unfortunately it is necessary to stress again and again that cultural life depends on money . That a man has to eat, before he can produce works of art, does not become wrong just because Karl Marx said so. It is fashionable in some circles of Bangkok to talk about the cultural desert here. To say this and not support people who are working to chnge this, is plan hypocrisy. Further development of musical life depends to a great deal on all of us. If we are willing to contribute financially to enterprises like the Pro Musica Orchestra or the Bangkok Combined Choir, the cultural desert will soon be blooming with beautiful flowers. Yet up till now only a hundred out of 3 million people of Bangkok have shown that they are willing to support the upcoming shoots, and concert attendance has been very poor. So where have all the cultured people gone?

Beethoven and other geniuses of cultural life have come to Bangkok . But will they stay?Participating in next week’s performances are

Conductor : Hans Gunter Mommer
Soloists : Mary Chaffee (Soprano)
Colleen Matisin (Soprano)
Bonita Bachmann (Contraalto)
William L. Delung (Tenor)
Douglas Lain (Tenor)
Richard Gregory (Brassbariton)
Emanuel Helige (Bassbariton)
Bangkok Combined Choir
Director : Mary Chaffee
Royal Thai Navy Symphony Orchestra
Leader : Smak Swethadis
Orchestra of the Fine Arts Department
Leader : Jolemue Jalanugraha
Pro Musica Orchestra
Leader : M.L. Usni Pramoj 13th U.S. Air Force Band Manila
Director : Capt. James C.Whittenton.

Performances on November 26th at the National Theatre (Royal Command Performance)

On November 27th, 8 p.m., at the National Theatre Tickets : 30, 20 baht (10 baht for students)

On November 28th, 4 p.m., at the National Theatre (Student performance : Tickets 10 baht)

Tickets are available at Diethelm Travel Office, 544 Ploenchit Rd. and at the German Cultural institute 102/1 Phra Athit Rd. Tel. 817211, 817526, 817737

Data : Bangkok magazine , November 22, 1970, page 8-10