Ode to joy - pull the other one Beethoven.
Fri, Dec 30 2011, 4:23PM
#2
RE: Ode to joy - pull the other one Beethoven.
No doubt sacrilege but I don't think the ninth is Beethoven's greatest symphony. I prefer the 5th, 7th, 4th and some others
You are not alone in holding that view. I'm sure the 'Ode to Joy' bit is wonderful but the rest of the Symphony has usually put me to sleep before I get there. I have an early 1980s recording by the Dresden Philharmonic under Herbert Kegel which is positively soporific.
I'm sure the hate mail will be on its way, I'll warn the postman!
Fri, Dec 30 2011, 6:07PM
#3
RE: Ode to joy - pull the other one Beethoven.
No, cw, there is no hate mail. If you have only this performance, in its original form, you may be excused. However, even this performance, in SACD form, sounds (in an appropriate equipment) not at all soporific.
Try, though, to get into trouble to listen to some other more authoritative performances and, most of all, try to attend a proper (an established good orchestra and chorus with an at least reliable conductor) live performance. It's one of these few works that recordings cannot do enough justice to its enormous and huge qualities. Whenever I was fortunate enough to attend a live performance, I was astonished at the immense depth (that even the last three Piano Sonatas do not have and only very few of the last String Quartets may have), incredible inner power and, obviously, the amazing musicality of the score (the theme of the slow movement is the other side of the same coin of the theme of the Ode to Joy, and so many more features).
If, after listening to more recordings and, predominantly, live performances, you still find the Symphony's three first movements soporific (I wonder how a very aggressive powerful first movement, an energetic inventive Scherzo and a sublime slow movement in superb Variations form can lead somebody in the arms of Morpheus), then...good sleep.
However, for the time being, let's celebrate the upcoming Year. Happy New Year, Chris.
Parla
Fri, Dec 30 2011, 9:54PM
#4
RE: Ode to joy - pull the other one Beethoven.
Parla,
There have been other recordings - A Karajan with the BPO (on DG if I remember correctly) and a borrowed one which was a live recording (Klemperer? - a long time ago so my memory may be failing me).
Actually I'm not a great fan of 'live' recordings, live performances belong in the concert hall IMO, recorded music is a 'different' experience. I have never had the opportunity to see/hear the Ninth live.
I love other Beethoven symphonies, just not number 9.
The Kegel/Dresden version will probably go to the charity shop next time I thin out my collection.
Sat, Dec 31 2011, 1:25AM
#5
RE: Ode to joy - pull the other one Beethoven.
Chris, because I love and appreciate the music of C.P.E. Bach and Haydn, my Beethoven's "favourite" (the ones I listen to more often) Symphonies are the 1st, 2nd, 4th and for, its whimsical nature, the 8th! However, whenever I come accross to a proper, particularly live (in the concert hall) performance, I "kneel down" and pay my respects to this great achievement of human spirit and musical genius.
All the best,
Parla
Sat, Dec 31 2011, 3:32AM
#6
RE: Ode to joy - pull the other one Beethoven.
Parla - I am very happy to see the 8th get a credit. Rather like its earlier sibling the 4th, it suffers in comparison with its near nieghbours, the 7th and the 9th (or 3rd and 5th, in the case of the 4th). For me both these works are too frequently seen as concert fillers, rather than great works in their own right. Strangely I prefer the slightly more 'big-boned' interpretations of these works than the fleeter versions of the other symphonies. But that may must be my peverse taste. It is a long time since I listen to the recordings but I remember really liking Colin Davis in the 4th with the Dresden Staatskapelle.
On the wider issue discussed here I just feel that each time I listen to a good performance of any of the symphonies I think at that moment in time it is the finest.
Sat, Dec 31 2011, 10:28AM
#7
RE: Ode to joy - pull the other one Beethoven.
I love and appreciate the music of C.P.E. Bach and Haydn, my Beethoven's "favourite" (the ones I listen to more often) Symphonies are the 1st, 2nd, 4th Parla
The 1st and 2nd are given excellent recorded performances by Hogwood. There is a mozartian quality to his readings but also a rough violence (musically, of course) which brings a freshness to these two sysmphonies and it is a disc I play often.
Well Parla I did expect you to shoot me down on this! I don't disagree it is a unique symphony but wouldn't class it with the last 3 piano sonatas; that, as you say, is the way it is for me.