貝多芬: 第九號交響曲 鈴木雅明 指揮 日本巴哈合奏團暨合唱團 Masaaki Suzuki / Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

貝多芬: 第九號交響曲
鈴木雅明 指揮
日本巴哈合奏團暨合唱團

梵谷的(向日葵), 達文西的(蒙娜麗莎), 托爾斯泰的(戰爭與和平)等經典世界文化的藝術作品是很少見而且相隔很久才出現的. 在音樂界中, 貝多芬的第九號交響曲(尤其是在結尾的大合唱部分)是對全世界的人們都很有重要意義的一件作品. 即使在今日, 當我們正準備要慶祝作曲家的250週年誕辰紀念時, 此交響曲的規模和複雜度仍然是令人生畏的.

根據一些在1824年5月7日在維也納的凱恩特城門劇院(Kärntner-Tor-Theater)首演現場人士的敘述, 我們知道貝多芬在整場表演中是站在舞台上, 但是因為耳聾的原因使他沒有注意到聽眾們全場熱烈的喜愛. 吾人永遠無法得知第九號交響曲當晚演出的聲音聽起來是甚麼樣子, 但是在知道這段歷史後, 聆聽用當年的古樂器來演奏此曲是很有啟發性的事. 以錄製過完美的65CD巴哈(清唱劇全集), 和最近備受讚譽的莫札特(安魂曲)與貝多芬的(莊嚴彌撒)的日本巴哈合奏團與指揮鈴木雅明, 加上一群優秀的聲樂家, 現在帶給我們他們詮釋貝多芬最後的, 也是最偉大的交響曲.

Allan Clayton
Neal Davies
Marianne Beate Kielland
Ann-Helen Moen
Bach Collegium Japan
Masaaki Suzuki, conductor

Van Gogh's Sunflowers, da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Tolstoy's War and Peace – those works of art that are truly part of the canon of global culture are few and far apart. In music, one work that holds significance for people all over the world is Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and especially its choral finale. Even today, as we are getting ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of its creator, the sheer size and complexity of the symphony is daunting.

There are some eyewitness accounts from the first performance at the Karntner-Tor-Theater in Vienna on 7th May 1824: we know for instance that Beethoven was on stage himself throughout the performance, but that owing to his deafness he did not notice the audience's overwhelming enthusiasm. What the Ninth sounded like that evening in Vienna is something we will never know, however – which is why hearing it in a historically informed performance on period instruments is all the more enlightening. With impeccable credentials from their 65-disc series of Bach's complete cantatas, and acclaimed recent recordings of Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Missa solemnis, Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki now give us their rendering of Beethoven's last and greatest symphony, joined by a fine quartet of vocal soloists.