Miguel Muelle wrote, in part:

>Last Thursday I had the pleasure of hearing Donald Runnicles
>conduct the Beethoven 9 in Atlanta.  I thought the performance was
>extraordinary in its clarity and depth.  The orchestra was enthusiastic
>even though they must have played this many times.  The chorus was
>amazingly CLEAR as well, and every word could be easily understood,
>yet flowed very musically. . . .
>
>[In a preconcert lecture, Runnicles mentioned] that until before the
>breaking down of the Berlin wall, one part of the manuscript was in the
>West and another in the East.  I would love to read more about this very
>dramatic story -- it would make a great movie.
>
>Does anyone know where to point me to find out more, or what the new
>manuscript is called, etc..."?

It's a new "Urtext" Edition by Norman Del Mar, published in 1997 by
Barenreiter.  See http://www.baerenreiter.com/html/lvb/index.html

Listening to the Atlanta performances from behind the orchestra in the
chorus, I heard a few changed notes, but the major difference between
these performances and the 50 or so I sang under Robert Shaw was the
flowing, more lyrical interpretation.  I ascribe this more to Runnicles
than to the new edition, though I have not had a chance to look over the
Barenreiter score.

In preparing for these concerts, we in the chorus used our old reliable
Breitkopf scores and were drilled in the Shaw interpretation.  In fact,
we used Shaw's editings from the 1980s, which most of us can sing without
referring to the score.  Shaw was all about rhythm.  He added hundreds
of accents and sforfzandi to the music to make us sing with percussive
emphasis.

But Runnicles, who first worked with us on Monday of performance week,
smoothed much of that away, repeatedly asking for less accentuation,
less staccato.  Where Shaw often wanted every note of a passage accented,
Runnicles asked us to sing so as to emphasize the meaning of the text.
The table-thumping aspect I've always associated with this work gave way
to a much more poetic outlook.  The piece was born anew.

Runnicles repeated the same story (twice!) to the chorus that Mr.  Muelle
heard from him at the Concert Preview, that one of the movements of the
original manuscript was separated for decades, half in East Berlin and
half in West Berlin.  Only after the Wall came down were they reunited
and the score made whole, making this Urtext edition possible.

By the way, the Runnicles/Atlanta Symphony & Chorus rendition is being
recorded for the Telarc label this weekend, at a session on Saturday
afternoon and two sessions on Sunday.  I don't know the planned release
date (and release plans often change anyway), but I would guess it
will be out this fall or next winter.  The soloists are Mary Dunleavy
(substituting at the last minute for an ailing Christine Goerke and
sounding wonderful), Elizabeth Bishop, Stephen Gould, and Alastair Miles.

Nick Jones
Program Annotator
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra