As Ever in a Crisis, Beethoven Reigns

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

In the program book for Wednesday night's concert by the Berlin Philharmonic, which opened the season at Carnegie Hall, there was a statement from the orchestra dedicating its New York concerts and coming American tour to "all those who suffered" from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

"John F. Kennedy once said at a critical moment in Berlin's history, `Ich bin ein Berliner,' " the statement read in part. "At this terrible moment, we are the ones who say with you, `We are all New Yorkers.' "

This poignant dedication was just one element of the Berlin Philharmonic's acknowledgment of the calamity. Claudio Abbado, who at 68 is facing health problems and completing his final season as the orchestra's artistic director, decided to change quite significantly the previously announced programs for all three of its New York concerts, including tonight's and tomorrow's, to present works deemed more appropriate to the anguish and challenge. Every time the Berlin Philharmonic comes to Carnegie Hall, its concerts become a highlight of the New York season. Clearly, this time the orchestra felt it would be impossible to perform at a hall within four miles of Ground Zero without making a fitting musical statement.

Several orchestras and ensembles in New York, grappling with how to respond to events, have also altered programs. For the opening-night concert of the New York Philharmonic on Sept. 20, Kurt Masur replaced the Beethoven Violin Concerto and the Franck Symphony with Brahms's consoling "German Requiem."

So it should not be surprising that several out-of-town orchestras with concerts in New York in the next few weeks have been considering program changes. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, which had been planning to perform Schumann's "Scenes From Goethe's `Faust' " on Oct. 16 and 17 at Carnegie Hall, will instead offer two performances of the Berlioz Requiem.

The changes to the Berlin Philharmonic's programs involved bumping Webern, Wagner and Mahler and substituting Beethoven. On Wednesday, in place of Webern's Six Pieces for Orchestra (1909), the Philharmonic played Beethoven's "Egmont" Overture. The rest of that program was as previously announced: a group of Mahler songs sung by the bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, and Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony. Tonight, as planned, Maurizio Pollini will perform Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1, but after intermission Beethoven's Seventh Symphony will take the place of three orchestral selections from Wagner operas. Mahler's Seventh Symphony is gone from tomorrow's program, replaced by Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth (the "Pastorale").

Why Beethoven? In his 1959 book, "The Joy of Music," Leonard Bernstein, playing devil's advocate, poked fun at the way conductors automatically turn to Beethoven every time some affirmation of humanity is called for. "What did we play in our symphony concerts to honor the fallen in war?" he wrote. "The `Eroica.' What did we play on V Day? The Fifth. What is every United Nations concert? The Ninth."

A statement from the orchestra released two weeks ago explained that Mr. Abbado and the Philharmonic's new intendant, Franz Xaver Ohnesorg (known to New Yorkers from his contentious tenure as the executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall), "felt the works of Beethoven, a composer who was motivated by great ideals and believed strongly in liberty and freedom, are an appropriate musical statement in light of the tragic events of Sept. 11." This is "the message," the statement added, that the orchestra "wanted to share with the people of New York City."

Surely Mr. Abbado and Mr. Ohnesorg did not mean to suggest that Mahler and Webern were insufficiently committed to liberty and freedom. (For argument's sake, better to leave Wagner out of the equation for now.) It's just that Beethoven made a big deal about it.

Yet those who extol Beethoven's egalitarian sentiments are on fairly shaky ground. Beethoven never espoused anything close to a coherent political ideology. For most of his life this supposed defender of equality clung to a preposterous fantasy that he was of noble birth. Obviously his incivility was aggravated by the steady deterioration of his hearing. But the man who set Schiller's "Ode to Joy" to stirring music proclaiming "all men are brothers" was haughty and abusive to servants, copyists, publishers and patrons, and he wasted years of his creative life in a protracted lawsuit to wrest custody of his weak-willed nephew from his dead brother's loving and decent wife.

Still, in many of Beethoven's works the democratic message is writ bold, including the "Egmont" Overture. It was composed for a production of Goethe's tragic play of the same name, which chronicles the true story of a 16th-century Flemish warrior who led the resistance to the Spanish domination of the Netherlands.

Though the overture is a bracing work, it can sound bombastic in superficially exciting performances. Mr. Abbado and the Berlin players would have none of that. Their performance was breathless without being driven, exuberant without being chaotic. The qualities for which the Berlin Philharmonic is cherished were abundantly present: the plush string sound, the wonderfully reedy winds, the magisterial brass.

Yet I missed having the chance to hear Webern's Six Pieces for Orchestra, which the orchestra plays so beautifully on a Deutsche Grammophon recording conducted by Pierre Boulez. No doubt Webern's atonal and angst-ridden 12-minute work was deemed all wrong for the occasion. But in a different way, Webern's restless music — by turns ruminative, tormented, elusive, ravishing — could have been enormously appropriate. The quizzical first piece, with its abrupt, darting motives, might have spoken to our collective loss, our disorientation. The fourth piece is an inexorable funeral march. It sounds like remnants of some consoling sacred work have been mysteriously strung together. If the point of the "Egmont" Overture was to shake us up, the Webern might have helped us look within.

The evening began with a perfect gesture. Carnegie Hall invited Daniel Rodriguez, a police officer from Patrol Borough Manhattan South, to open the concert by singing a solo rendition of "God Bless America." Mr. Rodriguez received a hero's welcome when he appeared onstage. As it happens, he also had a bright, pleasant tenor voice that needed no microphone to carry well in the hall.

Some visiting orchestras have decided that proceeding as planned with their New York concerts is the most appropriate and positive response. The National Symphony Orchestra will go forward with two programs on Oct. 12 and 13 featuring the percussionist Evelyn Glennie. These are part of a special project between Ms. Glennie and Leonard Slatkin, the orchestra's music director. Among other items, there will be New York premieres of four commissioned works. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under Daniel Barenboim, will present three programs as scheduled at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 18 to 20, with just one addition: before playing the New York premiere of Elliott Carter's Cello Concerto, Yo-Yo Ma will be soloist in Bruch's "Kol Nidrei," based on the Jewish prayer for the Day of Atonement.

On the other hand, Seiji Ozawa, who is in his last season as music director of the Boston Symphony, felt strongly about playing the Berlioz Requiem in place of the Schumann work for the orchestra's first visit to New York since the attacks, said the symphony's managing director, Mark Volpe. The Requiem has been an important work in the orchestra's history. Mr. Ozawa has often conducted it for commemorative programs — for example, a 1995 concert observing the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. Mr. Volpe said that after this first program, "the other programs we are playing in New York this season, God willing, will remain intact."

On Wednesday at Carnegie Hall, after the "Egmont" Overture, Mr. Quasthoff sang the Mahler songs, and nothing could have been more appropriate and consoling. The unforced power, rich colorings, lucid diction and subtle expressivity of his singing were ideal in this repertory. His gravely beautiful account of "Der Tamboursg'sell," one of four songs he performed from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn," was chilling in light of the current mobilization of American troops. The song's story tells of a drummer boy in the military who is pushed into battle, captured and marched to the gallows. Fellow captives don't even recognize him.

In "Ich Bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen," from the "Rückert Lieder," Mr. Quasthoff was achingly subdued. As he sang the lines "Dead am I to the world's tumult, and rest in a quiet realm!/ I live alone in my heaven, in my love, in my song," he made the private realm of this recluse seem like a safe place to hide out for a while.

Under Mr. Abbado the orchestra played the Mahler exquisitely. Then came a remarkable performance of the "Eroica." You can question the Berlin Philharmonic's decision to present four Beethoven symphonies in this series, but not its authority in this repertory. A fascinating thing about this great orchestra is that even while its personnel keep changing (there were many young faces among the players), its historic character remains intact. Of course, the Philharmonic's sound is glorious. But its flexibility remains a wonder. The "Eroica" performance was vibrant and sweeping but never aggressive. Mr. Abbado is willing to sacrifice absolute precision for the sake of elasticity. There was arching breadth as well as cogent shape in the phrasing.

That said, this performance might have had even greater impact on New Yorkers coping with the tragedy had the original program been maintained: Webern to plumb our anxieties, Mahler to help us cry and Beethoven to fortify our resolve. It also seems a shame to lose Mahler's turbulent and visionary Seventh Symphony, by Mahler's own account a victory symphony that traces a progression from night to day, a return to life.

Instead, tomorrow night's audience will hear Beethoven's Fifth, which was famously conscripted into the Allied effort during World War II. Is the Fifth being called up again? Not to worry. The piece will survive its current service. The "Pastorale" seems another curious choice, unless the idea is to provide shaken New Yorkers, who have a new awareness of their vulnerability in the city, about 50 minutes in which to fantasize about living in the Finger Lakes.

Orchestras must make their own determinations of what is appropriate to current events. By Oct. 27, many New Yorkers may even be grateful that the conductor Charles Dutoit, the pianist Martha Argerich and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra are adhering to a program titled "Salute to Argentina!"

That Mr. Abbado turned to Beethoven symphonies so reflexively at this time of anguish did not show great musical imagination. Yet Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who spoke before the concert, was quite right to thank the Berlin Philharmonic just "for being here." That the Berliners have come as scheduled is a boost to our morale. If only they had challenged us a little more.