notes: Beethoven & Bruckner

It seems less obvious today, but in the early 19th century it was common for a concert to last several hours. During such an evening, a colourful mix of genres passed by, from symphonies or concertos, to arias from operas, solo works or even entire choral works. On 22 December 1808, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) organised such a four-hour marathon concert at the Theater an der Wien. On the programme: his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto, an aria, two excerpts from the Mass in C and an improvisation at the piano. As a fitting finale, Beethoven wanted a 'brilliant finale' in which the different instrument groups from the concerto would come together. He announced the work as "an improvisation for piano with a gradual deployment of the orchestra and finally a finale with choir.

The work in question was a draft version of what would later become the Choral Fantasy, Op. 80. In fact, Beethoven was known for sometimes performing his compositions in a rough form first, only to finalise them afterwards. Both in melody and message, the Choral Fantasy points ahead to the Ode an die Freude from his later Ninth Symphony. That, in turn, was to become a model for the monumental symphonies of Anton Bruckner (1824-1896).

Bruckner called Beethoven "the incarnation of all that is grand and sublime in music" and saw the symphonic model of his Ninth as the perfect basis for his own symphonies. He also matched this in playing time: at an average of seventy minutes, Bruckner's symphonies are grand in scope. His Sixth Symphony is a notable exception: 'Can one compare most of Bruckner's symphonies to a proud Baroque cathedral,' wrote an Amsterdam reviewer in 1930, 'the Sixth is more like a chapel - intimate and transparent, standing in an open, sunny spot of a proud forest.'