Choral Fantasy op 80

[Fredrika]

This wonderful piece was - to my great surprise - a new one to me, but I had the amazing pleasure to sing it as a member of a choir and thought I'd start a topic on this.

While rehearsing, all of us kept on saying how much it resembles the finale of the 9th symphony, but in a cute, diminutive way. It was composed already in 1808, which suggests Beethoven had the main theme for his Choral Symphony for quite some time.

As I dug deeper, I found out that there were similarities to one even older piece, a lied called Seufzer eines Ungeliebten – Gegenliebe. How interesting it was to compare these with one another!

So, my question to you is, do you know any other same type of "siblings" in Beethoven's works? And have you listened to his Choral Fantasy? If not, I can highly recommend a fresh version conducted by Roger Norrington, published only a few months ago. (Our production was, to my relief, a much more humble one, otherwise I would have had serious difficulties with the German pronunciation in the final presto part!)

[Chris]

Yes, it is a great and unique work, and indeed a sort of prototype for the finale of the 9th symphony, while also being part piano concerto! I don't return to this one as often as to some other works, I think, because it's sort it in its own category and so I tend to forget about it. But I was just re-listening to it recently, because I had been revisiting the 9th, and it reminded me of the Choral Fantasy.