We always mark New Year's Eve by watching the same live concert, thanks to the miracle of the DVD -- a concert that actually happened almost a quarter-century ago.
The year that the Berlin Wall came down and the long-divided city was reunited, a very special concert was held on Christmas Day in celebration, called the Berlin Freedom Concert. It involved musicians from West and East Germany, France, Britain, and the United States, and was conducted by Leonard Bernstein, and the program was Beethoven's monumental Symphony No. 9.
We watch the same performance of Beethoven's Ninth every year, simply because it is the grandest, most imposing reading of the work that we've ever encountered. Obviously, the sense of occasion inspired everyone present, and gave the entire performance a special intensity and fire that can sometimes be missing.
Bernstein, of course, is a big part of that. He could never conduct a performance without giving it 120% of all that he had. What makes this particular performance unique was his inspired decision, empowered by the moment (as he put it), the replace the word Freude ("Joy") in the finale with Freiheit ("Freedom") every time it's sung. Purists would no doubt object, but under the circumstances I think a large degree of the power and glory of the singers comes from the use of this word.
The sizable large children's choir adds considerable heft to the overall sound in full-choir passages. All the soloists are very good too, Jan-Hendrik Rootering being especially effective in the opening bass solo of the choral finale.
Aside from that, the adagio slow movement is the highlight of the performance. Bernstein uses a daringly slow tempo, beautifully sustained, that makes every moment of the piece mean something and gives an extraordinary intensity to the whole. Beethoven called for innigkeit ("inwardness", for lack of a better English equivalent word) and Bernstein gives us all of that and then some. It's this slow movement that crowns the whole concert and definitely makes this a Ninth for the ages.
Production values and camera work are excellent, even if there's a bit too much close-up of Lenny's overly-emotional face. But on the whole, I'll put up with that because the visuals overall add so much to the performance. I already had an audio CD of the concert (from DGG) before getting the DVD release (on EuroArts Music), and the video undoubtedly adds to the powerful effect of the entire performance.
