No concert could be more "gala": Flemish minister-president Jan Jambon invited the 27 EU ministers of culture to this concert, on the eve of his meeting with those ministers. Belgium is indeed holding the EU presidency until the end of June.
No better warm-up for them than Beethoven's 9th symphony. The European anthem is based on it and the 9th premiered exactly 200 years ago. This time it was not an adapted Karajan version of it. Impossible with Beethoven biographer and conductor Jan Caeyers. It was his dream to perform that work under ideal conditions. That means with his own Le Concert Olympique and the Viennese Arnold Schoenberg Choir. Also a premiere this evening, by the way: it is the start of a concert tour in which they perform the 27 most important works by the composer in 27 European countries, the project Beethoven27. Very fittingly, the concert bears the title Call for peace. But enough dry facts, now it's time for the music.
Still, one more thing. A piece of Beethoven manuscript recently acquired by Flanders was entrusted by culture minister Jan Jambon to Bart Demuyt of the Alamire Foundation for safekeeping and research, the international study centre for music from the Low Countries. A nice gesture and a good example for his colleagues to show how Flanders handles European heritage. It is a rare musical sketch for the final part of Beethoven's very first piano sonata, which he wrote when he was 26. Most of the many musical inspirations he noted down in this way have been lost.
Not only the Ninth was on the programme, first there was the Choral Fantasy. Beethoven had written it about 15 years earlier and it would serve as a model for the ninth symphony, because – never tried before – he chooses to end that fantasy with a choir. If the ninth is an ode to peace and joy, then the Choral Fantasy is an ode to beauty, according to Caeyers.
It is pianist Kit Armstrong who guides us with his fresh and delicate touch to that sparkling beauty, to the strings and brass and finally to that excellent choir. The American Armstrong is known as a child prodigy and is one, how could it be otherwise if Alfred Brendel was your mentor and Caeyers crosses your path. He takes him along on his Beethoven27 tour through Europe, together with that well-trained orchestra that under the driving leadership of the conductor lets us hear that stepping stone to the Ninth.
And then that Ninth, also quiet and hesitant at the start, but soon that powerful rhythm of that all-too-familiar theme and the repetitions and variations. You might think that Beethoven was also a repetitive musician. But let us rather say it was innovative inventiveness. And then that second movement, that Molto Vivace, it always reminds me of his dancing 7th symphony.
With a sweeping swing, Caeyers keeps his Concert Olympique in check. You wonder how this would all sound if he had access to one of those famous symphonic orchestras or just not? You have to give him credit: here is a conductor who goes all the way for the composer. All too often too much attention goes to the performer, too little to the creator. And Caeyers? He is steeped in Beethoven. Score? Unnecessary! The orchestra plays a compelling adagio under the sweeping gestures of a reserved conductor. He becomes completely different when the alarming tones suddenly stop and bass Hanno Müller-Brachmann storms onto the stage and asks with his beautiful voice: "Nicht diese Töne", it should sound different, more joyful. Then that overwhelming romanticism breaks loose. Controlled and spread wide, the conductor triumphantly pulls his orchestra, choir and soloists towards that "Ode an die Freude" and towards that "Elysium" where the soloists and especially soprano Lenneke Ruiten delightfully lead us in.
Indeed, the stage burns with divine fire, the "Götterfunken" sparkle from it. This was truly a concert worthy of Beethoven.