Post by erik on Oct 9, 2021 12:09:04 GMT -5
A rarely heard cantata by Beethoven, but whose text is not from an at-all-unfamiliar source, is in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Beethoven: CALM SEA AND PROSPEROUS VOYAGE CANTATA, OP. 112
Germany’s two great titans of the arts, composer Ludwig van Beethoven and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had a penchant for working rather well together, even though their collaboration yielded only two works from the composer. The overture and incidental music that Beethoven composed for Goethe’s play “Egmont” was the first one, in 1807. The second one was based on a pair of poems by Goethe that reflected impressions of the sea eight decades before anyone had even heard of Claude Debussy. It was in 1815 that Beethoven, though becoming more isolated as the loss of his hearing was nearly complete, set Goethe’s “Calm Sea” and “Prosperous Voyage” into a ten minute-long cantata that combined the two. Set in the home key of D Major, as would be the later concert overture of the same name and source by Felix Mendelssohn only a decade and a half later, the work starts in rather tranquil settings and then accelerates to a notice of triumph as the ship in question resumes its voyage on brisk winds. The cantata was one of many numerous shorter choral works of Beethoven’s where the composer, albeit unwittingly, tested the strength of his choral forces, with the two most difficult works still yet to come: the choral finale of the Ninth Symphony, and the gigantic Missa Solemnis in D Major (both in 1824). “Calm Sea And Prosperous Voyage” has been frequently recorded over the years, but only on rare occasions has it been heard in the concert halls, even in German-speaking countries.
Radio In American Sector Chamber Choir
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/RICCARDO CHAILLY (London/Decca)
Included:
MASS IN C MAJOR, OP. 85 (Soprano: SUSAN DUNN; Mezzo-Soprano: MARGARITA ZIMMERMAN; Tenor: BRUNO BECCARIA; Baritone: TOM KRAUSE)
Beethoven: CALM SEA AND PROSPEROUS VOYAGE CANTATA, OP. 112
Germany’s two great titans of the arts, composer Ludwig van Beethoven and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, had a penchant for working rather well together, even though their collaboration yielded only two works from the composer. The overture and incidental music that Beethoven composed for Goethe’s play “Egmont” was the first one, in 1807. The second one was based on a pair of poems by Goethe that reflected impressions of the sea eight decades before anyone had even heard of Claude Debussy. It was in 1815 that Beethoven, though becoming more isolated as the loss of his hearing was nearly complete, set Goethe’s “Calm Sea” and “Prosperous Voyage” into a ten minute-long cantata that combined the two. Set in the home key of D Major, as would be the later concert overture of the same name and source by Felix Mendelssohn only a decade and a half later, the work starts in rather tranquil settings and then accelerates to a notice of triumph as the ship in question resumes its voyage on brisk winds. The cantata was one of many numerous shorter choral works of Beethoven’s where the composer, albeit unwittingly, tested the strength of his choral forces, with the two most difficult works still yet to come: the choral finale of the Ninth Symphony, and the gigantic Missa Solemnis in D Major (both in 1824). “Calm Sea And Prosperous Voyage” has been frequently recorded over the years, but only on rare occasions has it been heard in the concert halls, even in German-speaking countries.
Radio In American Sector Chamber Choir
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/RICCARDO CHAILLY (London/Decca)
Included:
MASS IN C MAJOR, OP. 85 (Soprano: SUSAN DUNN; Mezzo-Soprano: MARGARITA ZIMMERMAN; Tenor: BRUNO BECCARIA; Baritone: TOM KRAUSE)