Claudio Abbado conducts a Beethoven Gala at the 1991 New Year’s Eve Concert

This New Year’s Eve Concert began with the incidental music Beethoven wrote for Goethe’s tragedy Egmont, – allegedly even without a fee, because the project was so close to the composer’s heart. The piece tells of the Dutch struggle for freedom against the Spanish occupying power at the time of Philip II, and although the historical Count Egmont was ultimately executed, the whole thing ends with a triumphant victory symphony in the heroic idiom of French revolutionary music: “The main point is that the Dutch defeat the Spanish in the end” (Beethoven). This is followed by the concert aria “Ah! Perfido” (Ah! Faithless one), in which Beethoven, in the Italian operatic style, traces the emotional state of Deidamia, abandoned by Achilles, from the agonising pain of farewell to wild rebellion.

After the Leonore Overture No. 3, the evening ends with the splendid Fantasia for piano, choir and orchestra – Beethoven had composed the symphonic concert cantata as the grand finale for a mammoth concert of his own works lasting around four hours, which took place in December 1808 at the Theater an der Wien. The actual fantasy played by the solo piano at the beginning – a dark, fractured piece of music that stretches across the entire keyboard – is performed by 20-year-old Evgeny Kissin. The entry of the orchestra is followed by a melody that invites the listener to sing along and is reminiscent of the Ode to Joy theme of the Ninth Symphony, composed 15 years later, before the work ends with a monumental final climax.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Claudio Abbado

Cheryl Studer

Bruno Ganz

Evgeny Kissin

Kristina Clemenz

Camille Capasso

John Aler

Hiroshi Oshima

Friedrich Molsberger