The worst political manipulation of this piece involved a performance of the original. I mentioned it earlier in the thread. The one in Berlin conducted by Furtwangler in 1942.
I don't agree that the Beethoven 250 project is political (or woke or whatever) in intent, but even if it is, let's look at how ideology worked in reality in 1942:
- Members of the orchestra who where Jewish were dismissed, many would have been deported to the death camps, or at best refugees abroad.
- Same goes with audience members, a large proportion of whom had been Jewish.
- Imposition of cultural policy which forbade music by Jewish composers (e.g. Mendelssohn, Mahler) and also other music classed as degenerate (and restrictions on some types of music, such as jazz).
- It was mandatory for those who remained in employment as public servants (including musicians in academic posts) to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler.
The concert is like a strange pantomime involving Furtwangler (who tried to keep out of politics, but with mixed results), war criminals in the audience (including Goebbels at 1:33) and its probably Konrad Adenauer (at 3:48) who was in opposition to the Nazis but was also imprisoned by them (he became chancellor of West Germany after the war).
Its obviously a spectacle as well as a political showcase for National Socialism (e.g. swastika prominently displayed). Everyone was enlisted to go through the motions - including poor old Beethoven, it seems - to glorify the most toxic ideology which resulted in an estimated 18 million deaths.
So, given this sort of history, a nadir has been reached with Beethoven 9th already. I think that this is widely known (indeed, the fictional
A Clockwork Orange pretty much made this the big plot twist in the story, but somewhat more in the movie than in the book). Anyone touching this symphony would want to avoid anything even remotely resembling this sort of political manipulation. Beethoven 250 comes nowhere near close.
