Sinfonieta IX

“Rediscovering Beethoven’s 9th symphony after several years, I was disturbed by the ambiguity of this music and the discourse that accompanies it. Its instrumental and vocal device and its global energy unfold under the direction of a leader, the allegory of a leader leading a human mass with the baton. I had a feeling of crushing, strange power even as Schiller’s poem speaks of love between people, and the work would want to be a universal and symbolic impetus. With Sinfonietta IX, I wanted to question these elements present in Beethoven’s work (raising the choir like an army that starts up, the power of musical gestures and sound masses) which, in my opinion, make it very ambiguous and terribly current in its relationship to power.”

Zad Moultaka

olyrix.com 16/06/2018  Céline Wadoux

HisSinfonietta IX, a mezzo-soprano, choir and orchestra, reworked the melodic line of Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. Zad Moultaka redefines the message of the work, and “Alle Menschen werden Bruder» (all men become brothers) is transformed into a fascinating almost oppressive evocation of musical power, power of gestures and power of voices.

The single bass drum paces the first martial measures, followed by trombones and the gradual addition of brass and wind. The strings then take the characteristic coloration of a symphony. More and more distressing, some passages punctuated pizzicati recall the paw Bernard Herrmann. The melodic line of the Hymn to Joy is diverted by the strings, a few tones down, before an orchestral rise that introduces the chorus, composed of the National Choir of Korea, prepared by Eui-Joong Yoon, and the Andong Civic Choir prepared by Sang-Yun Choi.

The first verses of Schiller resound, this time distressing, enhanced by the ringing of tubular bells. The impression of anguish mingled with a tremendous effect of power, as the projection of the choir is impressive. The German language does not pose a problem of diction, neither in the passages most rhythmically jerky, nor in the passages slowed down. The feet of the singers are also instruments, pounding the ground like an army at a pace. The bass dies, before launching a powerful counterpoint taken up by warm soprano timbres despite the tense tone of the work.

La mezzo-soprano Julie Robard-Gendre, seated among the choir, gets up and begins with solemn grave with impeccable diction. Almost a cappella because only the bass drum accompanies it, it evolves in the score without difficulty, its pure highs, completed by delicate trills, keeping the same projection force as the bass. It is a thunderous applause that follows the end of the work, reinforced upon the arrival of Zad Moultaka on stage