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!
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.
"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.
Herbert von Karajan does a good Beethoven
Ode to Joy
My favorite.
Today is also my oldest son's birthday.
I did not name him Ludwig :-)
That is, the kings, queens, princes and other royalty provided subsidized havens of one kind or another for the talented musicians to enable them to create.
Popes and cardinals also sponsored composers and at the same time provided them with a stage for their work......churches, cathedrals, choir lofts, huge organs.......
For sure, the three Bs never had to do ditch digging or store clerking to provide sustenance for themselves and their families.
Saying there's equally talented composers "out there" today is like saying there's Rembrandts, Michelangelos or DaVincis out there. If there are geniuses out there, why have they never been discovered, or why haven't they stepped forward in some manner?
I think it'll be a long time before a genius like Beethoven comes forth Perhaps one of today's kings would be a patron for him, hmmmm.
I'm rather glad there's not even second or third-tier geniuses like Schubert or Chopin or Verdi around anywhere. They'd be on welfare and would not be able to produce. They'd be crucified if they accepted government subsidies to live at home and compose.
Beautiful, stirring music would have little to no paying audience today. This past century, for instance, the music from the "modern" operas are atonal, ugly and unbearable, appealing for the most part to eggheads, social snobs and stoned hippies.
A lot of art is ugly today, so is poetry, so is sculpture, so is contemporary popular and rap music.
A renaissance will have to take place in the future before great beauty and music is appreciated by a goodly part of the masses.
I won't live to see it, but I have hope. In the meantime, I surround myself with the music of the great composers of the past and consider myself blessed to hear it and know it.
A wag once expressed a view on today's popular music for the masses....."Americans as a whole don't like music. They like noise."
I think of that every time I shop at Publix and have to listen to the shrieking canned vocal music playing incessantly
I also think of the several generations of young people numbed by MTV and radio who never saw or heard an opera.......and who think Beethoven is a big, lovable St. Bernard dog.
Leni
That guy was good.
von Karajan
> Tell us who's your favorite conductor of Beethoven's symphonies (or who you're enjoying now).
I'll go with the set recorded by Bruno Walter on LP in the early 50s (5th and 6th were my in grandfather's collection and I still have them). After that, the remastered Toscaninis. Distant third, von Karajan from the late 50s/early 60s. 9th...the great Furtwaengler from I think 1938, and of course the Bernstein Freiheit recorded in Berlin when the Wall came down in 1989.
To LVB!