PERFORMERS

ORQUESTRA SIMFÒNICA AND COR DEL GRAN TEATRE DEL LICEU
Josep Pons, conductor
Julia Bauer, soprano
Nadine Weissmann, mezzosoprano
Mikhail Vekua, tenor
Attila Jun, bass
Coral Polifònica de Puig-Reig

WORKS

SCHÖNBERG: Friede auf Erden
BEETHOVEN: Symphony no. 9

This concert grew out of two poems on peace and fraternity. The first, An die Freude (Ode to Joy) by Friedrich von Schiller (1785), which Beethoven discovered enthralled when he was 20 years old. The Ninth is a project that the composer completed after years of work and over two hundred revisions. The result is one of the symphonies that has surpassed the category of sound to become a musical icon with its own life. The second, Friede auf Erden (Peace on Earth), written by Swiss writer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer (1825-1898). Schönberg began to set this poem to music in 1906, constructing a work for solo choir just when his musical language was evolving beyond traditional harmony. Even the choirs most accustomed to modern music found it difficult to sing and the composer created a discreet orchestral accompaniment. Written in peace time, when he was resting in Frankfurt in 1923, conducted by Hermann Scherchen, Schönberg told his colleague: “Friede auf Erden is an illusion, for mixed choir, a possible illusion when I composed it and harmony between human beings was possible... Since then, I have become afraid and I have seen that peace on Earth is only possible if we take great care over it, as is the case with harmony”.