Symphony Preview: Old Beethoven is new again at Powell Hall, January 23 and 24, 2015

"Beethoven Letronne" by Blasius Höfel
Licensed under Public Domain
via Wikimedia Common

This weekend two of the three works on the St. Louis Symphony program are making their first appearances on the Powell Hall Stage. That's not exactly news; the SLSO has given local audiences a good many local and even world premieres over the years. What's remarkable is that this time the local premieres are by Beethoven.

The SLSO has performed plenty of Beethoven in its 135 seasons, but never the 1807 "Mass in C Major" or the even rarer "Three Equali for Four Trombones" from 1807.

At around 43 minutes, the "Mass" is the big work on the program—although still not all that long as settings of the Latin mass go. In fact, the composer was striving for tranquility and simplicity, rather than the kind of high drama that would mark his much later (and more popular) "Missa Solemnis". As René Spencer Saller writes in her program notes, "the beauty of the Mass resides in its many deceptively simple details: the block harmonies of the choir, the flickering dissonances and sudden shifts from very loud to soft, the celestial tessitura (those sustained spells when the contraltos are clinging to the upper reaches of their register sound a lot more effortless than they are). Instead of the epic scope of Mozart's and Haydn's Masses, all that Holy Roman grandeur, Beethoven set his sights on the human scale."

The mass was written on commission from Prince Nikolaus Esterházy for his wife's name day. This put Beethoven in august company—Esterházy had ordered masses from Hummel and Haydn for the same occasion in the past—but when he got to the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt for the rehearsals he found himself treated as a poor relation, relegated to substandard housing and assigned an orchestra and chorus who appeared apathetic and incompetent.

The premiere was a disaster. "After the first performance of the Mass," write Cal Tech's Jeff McMillan and Donna Akutagawa, "the Prince reportedly said, 'My dear Beethoven, what have you written there!', evidently in a condescending tone. Beethoven immediately became irritated by this, and he left the Prince's court on the same day of the performance. The score was then dedicated to Prince Ferdinand Kinsky instead." The popularity of the piece has recovered a bit since, but it's still dwarfed by the "Missa Solemnis."

The "Three Equali," on the other hand, remain stuck in obscurity. They were composed at the request of Franz Xaver Glöggl, the music director of the Linz Cathedral, for an All Soul's Day celebration in 1812 and, in the words of New York Philharmonic annotator James M. Keller, constitute "one of the most curious items in [Beethoven's] entire catalogue." They're rarely heard these days, if only because it's hard to find a spot on most concerts for a five-minute suite for four trombones (in this case, two altos, a tenor, and a bass).

As for the term "equale," Mr. Keller notes that Glöggl "may have originated the term in the sense it is used here, to describe a mourning piece played by an ensemble of similar instruments...Such pieces were apparently specific to Austria, and especially to Linz. Apart from Beethoven's, the only other equale we are likely to encounter today are those composed (again for trombone ensembles) by two composers from Linz: Wenzel Lambel (who wrote ten, for three or four trombones) and Anton Bruckner (who produced two, for three trombones)." As a former trombonist myself, I'm rather looking forward to this little rarity.

"Metronom Mälzel 1815"
Photo by Andreas Praefcke
Licensed Under Public Domain
via Wikimedia Commons

In the same year that Beethoven wrote the "Four Equali," he also supposedly knocked out "Ta ta ta," (WoO 162) a comic canon whose lyrics are a tongue-in-cheek tribute to what was then the latest in musical technology: the metronome. This now-commonplace timekeeping device was, back in 1812, still under development in the workshop of Johann Mälzel. Beethoven, so the story went, learned of it during a party at Mälzel's and was very taken with the idea and improvised the canon on the spot. He then used the little "tick-tock" melody as the basis for the second movement of the symphony he was writing: the eighth in F major, Op. 93. Which, as it happens, is the other big work on the program this weekend.

The story may or may not be true. In "The Symphony, a Listener's Guide" Michael Steinberg presents it as real while Wikipedia, expressing what now appears to be the majority view, insists that the story is apocryphal and that the melody is actually a reference to Haydn's "Clock" symphony. Regardless, both the movement and the canon are whimsical fun.

For some time now, it has been commonly accepted that, starting with the "Eroica," Beethoven's symphonies tended to fall into pattern in which big, heaven-storming works alternated with more genial and modest pieces, with the latter suffering in popularity by comparison. Beethoven often wrote (and premiered) his symphonies in pairs, so the contrast may have been deliberate.

Certainly the Eighth, which was written at the same time as the Seventh, fits the pattern. As the Philadelphia Orchestra's Christopher H. Gibbs has written, the Eighth "is a shorter, lighter, and far more good humored work than its imposing neighbors, the relentless Seventh and the towering Ninth. According to his student Carl Czerny, in comparison with the extraordinary enthusiasm that greeted the Seventh Symphony there was initially a puzzled reaction in Vienna to the Eighth. 'That's because it is so much better' was Beethoven's alleged response."

In my feckless youth, I was inclined to prefer Beethoven's grander odd-numbered symphonies to their more modest companions. These days, I'm becoming more of an even-numbered person, especially when it comes to the unfailingly charming Fourth and Eighth. Let me know whether or not you agree by leaving a comment or two below.

The essentials: David Robertson conducts the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus along with Kate Reimann, soprano; Johanna Nordhorn, mezzo-soprano; Keith Boyer, tenor; and Jeffrey Heyl, bass-baritone in an all-Beethoven program featuring the "Mass in C Major" and "Symhony No. 8" Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., January 23 and 24. The concerts take place at Powell Symphony Hall, 718 North Grand in Grand Center. For more information: stlsymphony.org.