Eckart's First

		The Wall fell in November 1989. That Christmas in Berlin, Leonard Bernstein conducted an international orchestra and chorus in performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. In the finale’s “Ode to Joy,” Bernstein substituted “Freiheit!” for “Freude!” — freedom, even above and beyond joy.   At the time, Spokane Symphony Music Director Eckart Preu was a 20-year-old soldier in the East German army, stationed in a small town outside Dresden.   “I couldn’t get out to hear [Bernstein conduct]. This was mandatory service in the national people’s army,” Preu says. “But I knew people who knew people, so I was serving alcohol to officers in a sauna.”
Preu would overhear officers talking about how “We should go in and gun them all down.” “But then on TV, I would see the demonstrations going on, with all the chanting of ‘We are the people!’ and everyone’s fists in the air,” Preu says. “So it was extremely scary for me, because I overheard conversations about how ‘We’re gonna go in and take care of this.’ And I’m just a soldier, so I would be expected to go there with a gun, facing people with whom I totally agree, and… fortunately, that never happened.”   “The fall went so fast, like something impossible. It was like watching an action movie — but it happened in real time, and real fast.”   Life in East Germany wasn’t easy. “Encouragement is not in German education,” Preu says. “It was thought that criticism is what propels you forward. In my first 18 years, I was told maybe once, ‘Good job.’”   “When Bernstein came in, he embraced the newness and the positiveness that we had not had,” Preu recalls. “He was very outgoing, and he [embodied] the message that we are all brothers. And that’s why I’m here.”   This weekend, Preu will introduce the Ninth with Johannes Brahms’ Schicksalslied (“Song of Destiny”), which contrasts the idyllic life of the gods with the turbulent life of humans, thrown upon the rocks by tempestuous oceans. Or, as Preu says, “Brahms is much more of a downer. With Beethoven, it’s all about triumph.”   While the Ninth proclaims universal brotherhood — an ideal but probably unreachable goal — it also presents new facets, even for someone who has grown up with it like Preu.   “And the importance of God in this piece!” he says, marveling. “The music slows down whenever God is mentioned — I never realized that before. Time stops. In terms of musical pace, it’s almost in slow-motion [waves arms, sings steht vor Gott ‘stands before God’].   “I don’t know if I should be telling you this, but [the Ninth] been growing on me,” Preu says. “All that extreme brotherhood stuff — it seemed populist to me, in a bad way [hums the final movement’s main melody]. I mean, how cheap that tune was. But it’s what he does with it — that’s what’s been growing on me.”   “I sang the Ninth once, and I used to hate this stuff — it’s ridiculous in its demands. It seemed like too much, too unrefined. “But I was in my teens,” Preu says, grinning and shaking his head. Preparing to conduct the Ninth for the first time, he has come around to recognizing just what Ludwig could do.   The Ninth, Preu says, “stands out of musical history. Nothing has ever been written that is quite like it.”   The Spokane Symphony Orchestra performs Brahms’ Song of Destiny and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Fox on Saturday, May 9, at 8 pm. Tickets: $25-$47. Additional performance on Sunday, May 10, at 3 pm. Tickets: $21-$43. Call 624-1200 or 325-SEAT.