Beethoven: Die Ruinen von Athen, Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt & Opferlied

Listeners acquainted with Markus Bosch’s fine Bruckner series on Coviello will not be surprised by the spring in the step of the Ruins of Athens Overture, the graceful simplicity of the Opferlied’s... — Gramophone Magazine, October 2020 More…

Release Date: 29th May 2020
Catalogue No: 777634-2
Label: CPO

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Beethoven: Incidental music to The Ruins of Athens

Valda Wilson (soprano), Simon Bailey (bass), Sidonie von Krosigk (speaker)
Tschechischer Philharmonischer Chor Brunn, Cappella Aquileia
Marcus Bosch

Beethoven: Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, Op. 112

Tschechischer Philharmonischer Chor Brunn, Cappella Aquileia
Marcus Bosch

Beethoven: Opferlied Op. 121b

Valda Wilson (soprano)
Tschechischer Philharmonischer Chor Brunn, Cappella Aquileia
Marcus Bosch

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The focus of our second collaborative venture with the Cappella Aquileia and Marcus Bosch for the Beethoven Year is formed by the complete recording of The Ruins of Athens, an incidental composition penned by Beethoven for the opening of the recently constructed theater in Pest (today: Budapest) in 1812 and an occasional work set to a text by the then popular writer August von Kotzebue. Those who perform this work today are faced with a dilemma. If they perform Beethoven’s music without the spoken text, then a work in which language and music are closely intertwined is reduced to an arbitrary sequence of musical numbers. However, if they perform The Ruins of Athens with Kotzebue’s text, then they confront audiences with a political metaphor that without explanation would cause today’s listeners to shake their heads (at least) in bewilderment. In a new version Kai Weßler has endeavored to update Beethoven’s important idea of a classical-humanistic heritage embodied by Pallas Athena and to free it from the political connotations current during his times (and from Hungarian nationalism). The twofold goal was on the one hand to situate The Ruins of Athens in its time of composition during a period of social and political upheavals and on the other hand once again to render audible and intelligible the symbolism of the work (Athens as the cradle of European civilization, etc.).

Reviews

October 2020

Listeners acquainted with Markus Bosch’s fine Bruckner series on Coviello will not be surprised by the spring in the step of the Ruins of Athens Overture, the graceful simplicity of the Opferlied’s phrasing or the powerfully conjured atmosphere at the start of Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt. In all three works he leaves distinguished modern rivals (Tilson Thomas in the Opferlied and Chailly in Meeresstille, for example) at the starting post, integrating swifter tempos within an unfussy application of period principles.

November 2020

Bosch may not quite capture the exciting, inexorable sense of crescendo (almost Rossinian, one might say) that underpins the overture’s soaring main theme, but he brings much else to the score, conducting the janissary music faster than almost anyone else and with an exhilarating lightness that feels just right. The festival’s resident orchestra, Cappella Aquileia, responds with lively playing, and Bosch’s generally fast tempos emphasize the Singspiel element of the work.

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