Beethoven’s Ninth

Beethoven’s Ninth
Royal Albert Hall

In a surprising contrast to last night, it is not I, but the proceedings at the Royal Albert Hall, that are running late. Arrivals from Radio 3 are played some pleasant time fillers until they're ready to take us in.

First up it's Bent Sørensen's Evening Land. Starts with tranquil stings, though they're struggling to get off the ground. It's quite eerie to tell you the truth. Must have been a tumultuous night that Sørensen is describing.

Next up it's Anna Clyne's The Years, and there's absolutely a feel of 'As Time Goes By', as the choral work sets in. "Where does the bloody time go?" is a question I oft ask myself. A bit later, the instrumentation offers up some really sharp twists and - fittingly for tonight - I get a flash of one of my favourite TV programmes, namely Inside No. 9. [Side note: looks like there's a good article about 'The Curse of the Ninth' in my BBC Proms guide - must have a proper read of that when I get chance].

As part of my job, I call hospitals on the telephone on a daily basis. One particular hospital has set a permanent 'all our users are currently busy' message on their main line, and it plays you a nice piece of classical music while you wait. I was hanging on this line one day, about a year or two ago now, and I really liked the music. But I didn't know what it was, and needed to find out. So imagine, if you will, the time when I put my work phone on loud-speaker, and opened up the Sound Hound app on my personal phone, allowing it to take a listen to the weak and distorted tune on the other line. After a few failed attempts it finally caught the hook - it identified the music as Beethoven's Ninth, and such was my introduction to this extraordinary work. [Incidentally, the excerpt I heard on the phone was the opening of the second movement.]

I'd be here all night trying to drag out the right words to describe this 60+ minute symphony, so I'll leave on this final reflection:

During the interval, Anna Clyne is asked why she thinks Beethoven is still THE composer, even after all this time? I can't remember what she said now [I'm sure it was a good answer], but my own opinion on the matter boils down to this simple concept: his work ebbs and flows with almost the same fluidity as mother nature.

Image created with ChatGPT.