Ode to Joy<\/a><\/strong>\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\nThis \u2018desecration\u2019 drew howls of outrage. And not for the first time had Mahler stubbed his toe on the Ninth. Conducting his own performing version of the complete symphony in Vienna two years previously, his \u2018Retuschen\u2019 (retouchings) involving eight horns, four trumpets and a phalanx of percussion had scandalised many \u2013 so much so that he printed a flyer in its defence for the repeat performance a few days later. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nBut if, at that preview evening, the Strauss- and Sachertorte-loving bourgeoisie bestowed only a passing glance over Klinger\u2019s conception en route to a complimentary drink, what might their cursory impression have gleaned? Certainly not an image of the defiant, tortured genius so beloved of 19th-century iconography.<\/span><\/p>\n Was the composer emerging from his bath, a towel protecting his modesty, one foot extended as if awaiting a chiropodist? Of course not. But Klinger\u2019s symbolism induced initial bafflement \u2013 a naked Beethoven just the start of it. Here was a man literally revealing himself; vulnerability emphasised by a bodily pallor that contrasted with the dark rigidity of the plinth and even darker throne. And what about that quizzical eagle (Jupiter\u2019s personal messenger) at his feet? The writer Thomas Mann \u2018got it\u2019. \u2018To me,\u2019 he declared, \u2018heroism is achieved despite the odds; it is weakness overcome, and tenderness is part of it. Klinger\u2019s frail little Beethoven who is sitting on a huge godly throne, fervently concentrated, his fists clenched \u2013 that is a hero.\u2019 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nOne critic, at first repelled by \u2018the radical unconventional treatment of the subject\u2019, conceded it to be a \u2018daring experiment brought to a successful issue\u2019, while another saw it as the likeness of a modern god; indeed for a time it was one of the most celebrated images of the day. But by the end of the First World War a new generation of artists detected an element of kitsch. It was even provocatively suggested that Klinger should have installed a device to make Beethoven\u2019s eyes roll and the bird to flap its wings. Currently on show until 10 January as part of the Max Klinger and Europe exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, you decide.<\/span><\/p>\n The Arts, Chorus of Paradise, Embrace, 1902.<\/div>\nStill very much \u2018at home\u2019 in the Secession building (though in a different spot following <\/span>a lengthy absence), Klimt\u2019s erotically charged frieze proved no less controversial for the nearly 60,000 visitors to Friedrichstrasse in 1902. The critics were as divided as they had been over the sculpture. One fumed: \u2018What can one say about this painted pornography? These paintings might prove quite serviceable for some subterranean cavern where heathen orgies are held, but not for exhibition rooms into which the artists have the gall to invite respectable women and young girls.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nHe (it\u2019s probably safe to assume it was a he) had missed the point. And Mahler had surely given the key to it with the much-derided soundbite from Beethoven\u2019s Ninth. He hadn\u2019t opted for what might have been expected: the \u2018Ode to Joy\u2019 motto theme itself. Instead he homed in on the \u2018Seid umschlungen Millionen!\u2019 section, Schiller commanding \u2018Be embraced, Millions\u2019. \u2018This Kiss to all the World\u2019 becomes the climax to Klimt\u2019s 34 metre-long meditation on the Ninth as interpreted by Wagner (with a side-helping of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer). And as if to underline the vibrant ecstasy of Schiller\u2019s message, Klimt imagines not so much a kiss in the manner of his famous painting of the same name where the lovers face each other side on, entwined and enraptured in a golden cocoon. Here the embrace betrays a musky, muscular, vigorous urgency. Joy is visceral \u2013 as well it might be after the trials and tribulations encountered along the way.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe epic had opened intimately with three ethereal figures (genii) symbolising the \u2018longing for happiness\u2019. Suffering Humanity addresses the golden-clad knight-hero, whose face seems strangely familiar (in 1910 Klimt finally acknowledged that he\u2019d portrayed Mahler) while the figures of Compassion and Ambition look on. What Humanity is up against is the theme of the second wall, a predominantly dark-hued spectacle save for the Gorgons\u2019 gleaming snake-encrusted hair and the retina-scorching blue of the skirt sported by the louche representation of Intemperance, who is seen consorting with Lasciviousness and Wantonness. Above the Gorgons, seemingly pulling the strings, are Sickness, Madness and Death, while at the centre of the panel lurks a big black hole: the malevolent monster Typhoeus, reimagined as a gorilla.<\/span><\/p>\nAll is not lost, though. On the third wall, the figure of Poetry, lyre in hand, offers hope to th<\/span>e genii who have somehow prevailed; and (in the original show) after the punctured wall affording a vista onto Klinger\u2019s sculpture beyond, a vision of the arts radiates pure joy, love and happiness \u2013 that culminating kiss attended by an angelic chorus (Schiller\u2019s daughters of Elysium) in copper and gold, studded with flowers.<\/span><\/p>\n The Hostile Forces, 1902. \u00a9 Photo by Fine Art Images\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nAll in all, the idea of suffering humanity seeking redemption and release through the transformative power of art now seems as uncannily topical as it did to the artists of the Secession who contrived a compelling Gesamtkunstwerk<\/i> (Wagner\u2019s word signifying the union of the arts) writ large. Sold to a private collector, looted by the Nazis and finally restored to the \u2018golden cabbage\u2019 in the mid-1980s, Klimt\u2019s frieze remains a potent and protean reminder of a Beethoven celebration that shunned the obvious to ask questions which, nearly 120 years on, won\u2019t go away. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
By Paul Riley Published: Monday, 19 December 2022 at 12:00 am \u00a0Back in 1902, a group of artists in the composer\u2019s adopted city planned a homage to Beethoven like no other: an ambitious fusion of art and design, sculpture and architecture, probing the notion of the composer\u2019s role \u2013 and that of any artist \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":22908,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"7"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/beethoven-frieze-how-a-temple-was-devoted-to-the-great-composer.jpg",2244,1073,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/beethoven-frieze-how-a-temple-was-devoted-to-the-great-composer-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/beethoven-frieze-how-a-temple-was-devoted-to-the-great-composer-300x143.jpg",300,143,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/beethoven-frieze-how-a-temple-was-devoted-to-the-great-composer-768x367.jpg",768,367,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/beethoven-frieze-how-a-temple-was-devoted-to-the-great-composer-1024x490.jpg",800,383,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/beethoven-frieze-how-a-temple-was-devoted-to-the-great-composer-1536x734.jpg",1536,734,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/beethoven-frieze-how-a-temple-was-devoted-to-the-great-composer-2048x979.jpg",2048,979,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Paul Riley Published: Monday, 19 December 2022 at 12:00 am \u00a0Back in 1902, a group of artists in the composer\u2019s adopted city planned a homage to Beethoven like no other: an ambitious fusion of art and design, sculpture and architecture, probing the notion of the composer\u2019s role \u2013 and that of any artist \u2013…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/22907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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