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The Nobel Prize Concert is generally considered one of the leading musical events of the year in Europe. The 2020 Nobel Prize Concert featured world-renowned pianist Igor Levit with conductor Stéphane Denève leading the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. In the light of celebrating the 250th Ludwig van Beethoven Anniversary the Concert centered around the Piano Concerto No. 5, and the other pieces in the program complemented it.
The Piano Concerto No. 5, often known as The Emperor Concerto due to its high energy and noble spirit, was Beethovens last completed piano concerto. The Emperor Concerto is a significant part of the heroic Beethoven period, and it takes part at the start of his transition from the classical approach to romantic (Raman et al. 5). The Piano Concerto No. 5 is often suggested to be more of a symphonic work than a piano concerto; however, the brilliant piano work of widely appraised Igor Levit emphasizes the piano solo. Furthermore, Levits chemistry with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in this Concert seemed immense. Every time he paused from the piano, he looked toward the orchestra with great enthusiasm and excitement.
The first movement of the Concerto might sound intermitted at first. It starts with a fast, compelling piano solo with loud chords from the orchestra. The piano fades and slows in virtuoso figurations as the music transitions to a vigorous and heroic orchestral theme with a complex assortment of secondary themes. The beginning of the first movement has a pleasant and cheerful spirit to it. In the second part, the orchestra introduces beautiful and gentle virtuosic piano and accompanies it as the attention focuses on the piano. The positive and friendly tone mixes with commanding and sharp intonations but then comes back to the dominant triumphant sound of the first part. Adolph Bernhard Marx pointed out the contrasts and frequent contradictions in Beethovens works as he called Beethovens music self-portrayal, and explained that you could almost hear Beethoven weaving his ideas from darkness and light (qtd. in Bonds 157). The piano suddenly becomes quiet and hectic toward the end but only for the buildup of revealing the final climactic orchestral sequence. In brief, the first movement presents a tree-theme sonata structure, a signature trademark of Beethoven concertos.
On the other hand, the second movement sounds drastically different from the first one. In the second movement, the piano enters after quiet orchestral strings in a gentle nocturne manner. The piano in the second movement sounds leisurely elegant and relaxed as opposed to the first movement. Further in the Concert, the piano comes into one repeated melody with modified harmonies. At the end of the second movement, the tone lowers down as it prepares the listeners for the third movement.
Lastly, the final movement comes up unexpectedly in a festive and celebratory way compared to the second one. In the beginning, the piano melody spirals around the motive and explores all the different tones and variations. As the Romantic era pieces are frequently characterized by their emotional and storytelling style, the music feels happy and joyful (Nichols et al. 6). The segments where the orchestra reiterates the piano seem delightfully satisfying to the listeners. The introductory theme reappears in the ending, followed by a short piano cadenza, and the Piano Concerto No. 5 ends with a powerful response from the orchestra.
The other pieces in the program emphasized the beauty and significance of other works from Beethoven. The Flammenschrift by French composer Guillaume Connesson was introduced to the orchestra by the conductor Stéphane Denève himself. Denève previously launched Flammenschrift with Brussels Philharmonic intending to include a work of 21 century into further concerts. The title Flammenschrift could be translated as a flaming letter or flame writing. Flammenschrift originally consists of three parts, one of the parts Connesson composed to paint a musical portrait of Beethoven; he also used the same style and the same forces in his composition as in Beethovens Fifth symphony. This part of the program serves as a tribute to Beethoven and contrasts rugged and impetuous sounds and veiled lyricism. Beethoven was said to be a passionate man who celebrated the idea of peace, but he also sometimes displayed anger towards his colleagues and friends. The music is fast and has an aggressive feeling to it, with lots of textural layers. The strings sections are brilliantly differentiated, the development section greatly resembles Beethovens, and the whole composition insists intense contrasting images to the listeners imagination.
Next in the program comes the composition Solus by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi. The piece was written as a commission for the BBC Last night of the Prom and was premiered in the Royal Albert Hall by BBC Symphony Orchestra. Solus means lonely in Latin, which seems like a perfect name for a piece centered around the world in conditions of the pandemic. The music starts quiet and has a sneaky feel in the clarinets and the flutes, representing the virus itself. Soft and inert music progresses into a pacey and eerie sound and finally ends with love and peace conquering the world. It seems that you could almost hear the birds and the sounds of nature in the ending sequence. This composition accentuated the ongoing situation with the pandemic and conditions in which we accounted to celebrate Beethovens 250th anniversary.
The final piece from Igor Stravinskys Firebird suite continued the fiery theme from Flammenschrift. The Firebird is widely appreciated worldwide, with some fragments of the composition used even in Walt Disneys Fantasia. The work also signifies the beginning of Stravinskys partnership with Serghei Diaghilev, which further resulted in other outstanding works such as Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, Mavra, and Pulcinella. The ballets music has a glorious feeling and goes smoothly from intensive rapid fragments to loud and powerful and slow and calm. The overall atmosphere is enchanting, which goes well with the fairytale plot of the story about a magical Firebird: a bird that gives great gifts but could also bring great troubles. The Concert ends with a triumphant note which brings us back to the primary purpose of the Concert the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Prize Concert is often seen as the main musical event of the year in Europe, and the 2020 Concert was not an exception. The brilliant work and chemistry of Stéphane Denève, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and pianist Igor Levit resulted in two hours of joy and true musical excellence suited for outstanding nominees. As the Concert centered around the celebration of the 250th Beethoven Anniversary and the Piano Concerto no 5, the other pieces of the program complimented it and the other significant works of Beethoven.
Works Cited
Bonds, Evan. The Beethoven Syndrome: Hearing Music as Autobiography. Oxford University Press, 2020.
Nicholls, Clare, et al. Charting the past to understand the cultural inheritance of concert hall listening and audience development practices. Paedagogica Historica, vol 54, no. 4, 2018, pp. 502-516.
Raman, Kriegsman, et al. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven: Sorting piano excerpts based on perceived similarity using DiSTATIS. New Ideas in Psychology, vol. 57, 2020. ScienceDirect, Web.
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