Posted on 12/16/2006 10:57:05 AM PST by ZGuy
Happy Holiday Music Weekend! Hear the music of Mozart this weekend on Beethoven Radio!
So, in honor of Sir. Ludwig we'll do something here -- Tell us who's your favorite conductor of Beethoven's symphonies (or who you're enjoying now).
For me, I'm going with Barenboim today. The conductors that turn Beethoven's Fifth into a quick-step don't do a lot for me!
Happy Beethoven's Birthday!
Dear ZGuy,
What an absolutely excellent idea!
Thanks!
Classical Music Ping List ping!
It's Ludwig's birthday!
If you want on or off this list, let me know via FR e-mail.
Thanks,
sitetest
Gabba Gabba Beethoven!
Even the second tier of great composers such as Haydn, Handel, Wagner, Schubert, etc., have not been equaled by anybody in the last century.
But I have to say Eugene Ormandy is probably more consistent and exploratory.
Haitink also does a credible job on the Pastorale, by the way.
Dear gusopol13,
Here's a footnote from the Beethoven article at wikipedia:
"Those dang kids and their music!"
--Haydn
Each symphony has its surprises, but it's the 9th -- released first of all the symphonies in 1987 -- that blows one's mind. For years I had thought that you had to put up with a lot to get to the finale. But when I heard Norrington's first movement, I had this sensation that I was hearing the piece performed correctly for the first time. It was a sense of absolute rightness.
At quarter note = 88, the first movement is much faster than I had ever heard it. At that speed, Beethoven grabs you by the scruff of the neck, drags you up mountains, down valleys and ravines, and 14 minutes later you're black and blue and covered with blood -- but you feel great! It takes your breath away.
The surprise in the scherzo is that -- if you follow Beethoven's metronome markings -- the trio is slower than usually performed. At this speed, the winds function as a choir, and the flute line is pristine.
The slow movement is marked at quarter note = 60, and at that speed the movement doesn't drag, it dances.
The finale has many surprises. Much of it is faster than traditional performances, but the Turkish music section is much slower. But it's a correct non-military marching pace.
In his late Forties, Beethoven sent away to the publishing firm of Salomen in London for a very expensive edition of the collect works of Handel. This marked a milestone in Beethoven's output and a change of direction. Beethoven now took a much greater interest in counterpoint, and fugues start popping up all over the place.
In the 9th, the shock comes at the end of the development just before the recap. At the traditional faster speed, this part tends to sound manic. But at the slower dotted quarter note = 84 speed, this passage under Norrington's baton becomes a German country dance. Think of sheperdesses dancing in circles inside a barn. The hair on my neck actally stood on end the first time I heard this passage.
At the end of the recap, when the "Seid umschlungen, Millionen" choral passage begins, the strings take up an accomponiment that is pure Handel -- if you take it at Beethoven's faster-than-traditional speed.
The end of the piece is marked slower than the usual traditional speed, and at that speed the timpani, beaten with leather rather than velvet sticks, sound like military drums right off the battlefield.
Each symphony has its surprises. If I'm stuck on a desert island, Norringont's is the collection I want to have at hand.
Don't forget Alfred Brendel.
These people should be placed firmly in the first tier.
Back about 25 years ago, when Dr. Robert Winter did his Beethoven lectures at UCLA, he noted that people would often ask, "Why don't composers write like that today?" To illustrate an answer, Winter told a story about a trip to a used bookstore.
He had been looking for a copy of Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther", but had been unable to find it. Instead he picked up a book called "The Snatch", which was a piece of porn about college girls kidnapped by terrorists -- and the sexual things they did to get away from said terrorists.
Winter noted that literature had changed, so it was to be expected that music would also change. He also noted the bloody history of the 20th Century and the move away from music that people could understand back in the early 20th. Music was now being written for academicians, not the people.
The classical canon may be a collection of musical museum pieces today, but they are a sampler of Western Civilization at its peak.
hmmpphhh! They're offering your Norrington 9th for a penny at Amazon. Thanks for the tip; there is also a boxed set of the nine symphonies for $33.
Yes, Brendel's rendition of Beethoven's piano sonatas are beautiful. I believe I still have some old "Vox Box" LPs in my collection!
Buy them! The latest issue of "Gramophone" evaluates Norrington's recordings as one of the very best available.
The Vox edition suffers from poor recording quality. Get the Philips edition which has only one or two sonatas with recording flaws.
Try watching "Immortal Beloved". A beautiful movie.
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