Review of Ode to Freedom: Symphony No. 9 (1989)

For those who have been dying to own a video-recording of Leonard Bernstein conducting Beethoven's Ninth Symphony commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall, the wait - and all this torture and frustration we had in the past - is finally over...

For the first time on DVD, we can watch this legendary and moving concert at our own homes. We no longer have the excuse of not being able to relive this event because of limited production of video tapes and worse yet, LASER DISCS. We may have seen snippets of it in documentaries and such, but say goodbye to that too!

For those who don't know, this is a DVD worth watching. It's a piece of history in itself. The performance was held on Christmas Day, 1989, about a month and a half after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Celebrating the reunion of Germany and the rest of the world, Leonard Bernstein, a prolific American conductor and composer (including the musical "West Side Story") led a combined force of musicians from East and West Germany, as the United States, Britain, France, and Russia. Even a youth chorus was also invited to add more diversity. In the final movement of the symphony, he changes the word "freude" (joy) to "freiheit" (freedom), perhaps to give more emphasis that people are free from Communism, not to mention a possible fact that Schiller initially titled his poem "Ode to Freedom". Whatever the changes made, indeed "all men become brothers" in the concert... for the moment at least...

Bernstein, having less than a year to live, conducted the internationally combined orchestra rather slowly, much slower than what he did in his two previous recordings - not exactly preferable to my taste; I'm most used to the relatively fast-paced recordings of Herbert von Karajan, Eugene Ormandy, and Claudio Abbado just to name a few. It's generally even slower than the one done by Karl Bohm. Nevertheless, Lenny, the four soloists from respective countries, the choruses, and the orchestra sang from their innermost heart and soul. Some of the parts were done much better than what other conductors have done. For instance, the jubilant coda in the last movement in particular is performed with top-notch speed and almost inexplainable ecstacy, as if Lenny was storing his passion and power for that defining moment. The ovation itself was a moving moment; it seem to never stop as the audience showed their gratitude and appreciation to the performers.

For those who do know this, never hesitate to buy if, even if you own the audio-only version. Time to use both your eyes and ears to witness this historic and moving occasion.

(Just to let you know, the performance - excluding the "breaks" between movements and the applause - lasted more than 80 minutes. In the CD recording it lasted roughly 78 minutes. That is because it omitted the repeat in the "A" section of the second movement, to avoid using two disks, as each CD fits 80 minutes worth of music... although newer CDs are able to fit a little more than 80 minutes...)

Product Description
Leonard Bernstein's historical concert in celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 has long become almost as legendary as the revolutionary moment that it celebrated. Recorded at the beautiful Schauspielhaus right on Gendarmenmarkt in the centre of Berlin on Christmas 1989, it has now become available on DVD, along with a short documentary film as bonus. The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 1989 unleashed a wave of democratisation in Central and Eastern Europe that radically transformed the world order and Leonard Bernstein spontaneously accepted an invitation to conduct a performance to mark this new era. It was only fitting that East Germany's new-found freedom should be celebrated with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The monumental work, perhaps the world's most famous Symphony, was inspired by Schiller´s poem "Ode to Joy", a passionate eulogy to freedom. Adding to the symbolism of the event, Bernstein conducted an orchestra and chorus formed from musicians from both East and West Germany (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden), as well as the United States (New York Philharmonic), Great Britain (London Symphony), France (Orchestre de Paris) and the Soviet Union (Orchestra of the Kirov Theater).

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