I remember how disappointed I was when I heard the last symphony of Beethoven’s 9 total. I was 18 years old then. One by one, I had discovered each symphony that I’d never heard before. I would so look forward to hearing another symphony of his that I hadn’t heard yet. I don’t remember what order I heard them in, but I still remember how sad I was that there were no more Beethoven symphonies to discover.
Then, a few years later I listened to the third symphony again. For some reason, now I heard things in it I’d never heard before. Then I heard the sixth symphony played live when I was in Ohio. Again, I noticed sounds I hadn’t heard before. When I told this to the conductor at the reception after the performance, he raised his eyebrows as if I were suggesting the orchestra played some wrong notes, which I wasn’t.
Then there is the ninth symphony. For the longest time, I never understood the first movement. I have struggled, trying to find a melody. Melodies are so plain in the other works. So even though I’d heard the first movement many times, I didn’t get it. Then I heard a Cleveland Symphony Orchestra performance conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi. His interpretation finally made sense to me. Now, I had a glimpse of what Beethoven was doing in it. I was hearing it for the first time, in a way.
I read a critic from Beethoven’s own time period, Carl Maria von Weber, who complained about the sustained “e” in the first movement, “Always that miserable e,” Weber writes and suggested that Beethoven must have grown deaf to the “e” and was now ripe for the madhouse. That gave me a new way into the 7th symphony. I listened intently and heard that sustained “e” I’d never noticed before. It was like hearing the 7th for the first time. And as I wrestled, trying to think up with horn lines for my own compositions, I listened intently to Beethoven’s orchestrations–yet another way to hear his symphonies afresh.
Beethoven wrote that the true artist could have no pride. While he might be admired by a world-wide audience, he realizes that art has no limitations and awaits the time when the greater genius will shine forth like a blazing star. Art has no limitations. Great art holds so much that one can return to works of great art again and again and hear, see, read and experience it as if for the first time. While my ear has listened to all 9 of Beethoven’s symphonies, my soul hasn’t heard all that is in them. I can keep coming back, and discover Beethoven’s 9 symphonies for the first time.
David Fekete 