Eureka (or should that be Freude) - Beethoven's 9th
Posted by: Tam on 01 August 2006
In order to better set this thread in context, I shall lift a few posts from my thread on Schubert's 9th:
And, lastly, from the Beethoven thread, in reference to that Davis reading:
Well, this evening I listened to this:
I decided to pick it up in the hopes it might deliver the passage above in the way I would like. I had a feeling it might given the magic Runnicles has brought to the concert hall here in Edinburgh. I also picked it up because, despite having loved his concerts I do not own a single recording (partly because, I suspect due to being based largely in the States, and union issues there, his discography is not as large as it deserves to be).
This is a reading of the 9th quite unlike any I have ever heard. There is a simmering, perhaps seething would be a better word, tension running throughout. He holds back his forces in an absolutely masterful way leaving you crying for more and yet not disappointed in what you've got. He finds a huge amount of beauty in score (aided by some wonderful playing and a wonderful recording that captures excellently the huge range of volumes he displays). I suppose, especially in terms of tempi, he is in the Davis mould, yet the sheer drama (and in particular the way he holds his pauses) reminds me more of Mackerras. He also has more than a dash of humour (or at least brings out that in Beethoven's writing).
But how does he acquit himself in the slow movement. Well, again there is that idyllic tension on the strings and some lovely quiet playing. But when it comes to the key chords, on the final one he sent a shiver down my spin and comes as close as I expect one could, save for bringing the Berlin Phil into my living room (which wouldn't work anyway as there isn't the space!).
Again the finale offers more of the same (though perhaps he doesn't showcase the earlier themes in quite the fine way of Davis). The choral singing is excellent and diction is generally clearer (and there is no crampedness on 'vor gott'). The joy and excitement he brings is something (as is that tension).
I'm not sure all of that really sums up quite how wonderful I think this reading is. I'm tempted to say it is the finest I have heard. Suffice to say that more Runnicles discs ought to be entering my collection shortly. That, and if you like the 9th, you should give this a try (just £5 or so from the Amazon marketplace).
regards, Tam
quote:
Interestingly, I heard him do Beethoven 9 at the Proms two years ago. There was a wonderful bit of Schoenburg (sp?) in the first half, much more to his talents. The Beethoven was marred by the RAH accoustic where despite some wonderful singing from the CBSO chorus I was left wanting the volume turned up. However, two things struck me in that performance. Firstly, towards the end of the slow third movement there is a chord (repeated once, if memory serves) that I had not noticed before, the way he built it as the music goes 'du-du-dum-dum-DAH du-du-dum du-du-dum du-du-dum' (I'm sure you will have no idea which passage I am aluding to from that awful description - if only I had a score before me!). Anyway, the way the chord was played (some of the finest string ever heard) was absolutely spine chilling. Each new recording I buy, I hope to hear something close. I never seem to. More interestingly, though, was the start of the 4th movement where Beethoven quotes the preceeding 3. The way Rattle brought this out struck me in a way it never has before (perhaps unsurprisingly since this sort of thing occurs a great deal in Mahler and elsewhere and to great effect), it is Beethoven looking forward to the romantic era (though not close to straddling it in the way Schubert does) and for a moment Rattle was at home.
quote:
Dear Tam,
Of Topic, on the Ninth of Beethoven!
I have worked out where you are in the music. The passage comes twice, nearly at the end of the movement, and I always think of it as the Gates os Elyseum in music, glimsed but not passed through...
Two performances get this passage better than others I know, and both are live with the Philharmonia. Firstly, under Furtwangler at Lucerne in 1954 [on Tahra, France], and perhaps even mor impressive is under Klemperer's hand at the Royal Festival Hall in 1960 ot 1961 [on Testament]. What is striking in this later one is that the movement has taken on a momentum all based on two (then surprising in pre HIP days) rather fast, and stable basic tempi, with splendid, long breathed phrasing, which for once integrates the Andante and Adagio aspects perfectly, but it actually sounds very grave and serious, but never actually fast at all.
The breaking up of the flow at the this point is a massive rupture in the music in Klemperer's hands, while Furtwangler takes the movement as a phenomenal reverie with a very slow, almost impossibly so, rendition which must have required immense concentration as the tension never flags. The feeling again is of a massive interruption, though by completely different means...
I wish I had my score to hand and I could quote the bar numbers for anyone else interested to find this point. It is a master stroke!
If I get my scores back before the thread closes I will post again on this...
Fredrik
quote:
Dear Fredrik,
From your description (far better than my own) I am convinced we are on the same page - one day I shall get round to getting a set of Beethoven symphony scores (which can probably be had for around the price many CD cycles).
I have the Furtwangler Bayreuth performance, which I think is very special indeed (and one of my favourite readings of the 9th - along with Berstein in Berlin and Mackerras), but I don't remember it capturing that moment with the same intensity. I think, as I suggest, it wasn't so much the way the conductor handled it, as the tone and quality of that string playing. Anyway, I'd be interested as to how the Furtwangler you mention compares.
As to Klemperer, since enjoying Davis (I shall be finishing off his cycle this evening with the 9th, so who knows...) and hearing that he was in the same mould I have been meaning to pick up his EMI cycle (since it's dirt cheap and and has Barenboim with him in the concertos to boot) - how does that compare with the testament issue?
regards, Tam
p.s. For those who haven't the slightest clue what we're talking about, please get out your 9th symphonies and listen to the last few minutes of the 3rd movement and (having read the second paragraph of Fredrik's post) hopefully all will be clear.
And, lastly, from the Beethoven thread, in reference to that Davis reading:
quote:
However, finer still (and along with the 8th) possibly the highlight of the set, is an absolutely glorious ninth. At 71 minutes this is not a brisk account (yet it never once feels sluggish - as with all these readings). Again there is glorious playing in all of the first three movements (particularly in the third where he captures wonderfully the moment that Fredrik and I have discussed at length in the Schubert 9 thread - though the string tone is not quite so cutting as the BPO were live, though I don't image that magic is quite possible to recreate in the home - and he really brings out these bars where sometimes they can fall by the wayside). The finale is also very fine (though here, and perhaps for the only time in the set, the recording quality is not quite so perfect, but this is a tiny quibble). Indeed, he reallly brings forward the preludes to Mahler (more convincingly than Rattle did live), the way he presents the first three themes, which can so often be blinked and missed, is near perfect (and I'm sure I've not heard them quite that isolated before). The choral singing is pretty good, though here the diction is not quite with the finest choirs and on the loudest moments (vor gott) things get a little muddy, and the recording seems a little cramped. But the Mahlerian way the final bars wring out makes up for any of these small quibbles.
Well, this evening I listened to this:
I decided to pick it up in the hopes it might deliver the passage above in the way I would like. I had a feeling it might given the magic Runnicles has brought to the concert hall here in Edinburgh. I also picked it up because, despite having loved his concerts I do not own a single recording (partly because, I suspect due to being based largely in the States, and union issues there, his discography is not as large as it deserves to be).
This is a reading of the 9th quite unlike any I have ever heard. There is a simmering, perhaps seething would be a better word, tension running throughout. He holds back his forces in an absolutely masterful way leaving you crying for more and yet not disappointed in what you've got. He finds a huge amount of beauty in score (aided by some wonderful playing and a wonderful recording that captures excellently the huge range of volumes he displays). I suppose, especially in terms of tempi, he is in the Davis mould, yet the sheer drama (and in particular the way he holds his pauses) reminds me more of Mackerras. He also has more than a dash of humour (or at least brings out that in Beethoven's writing).
But how does he acquit himself in the slow movement. Well, again there is that idyllic tension on the strings and some lovely quiet playing. But when it comes to the key chords, on the final one he sent a shiver down my spin and comes as close as I expect one could, save for bringing the Berlin Phil into my living room (which wouldn't work anyway as there isn't the space!).
Again the finale offers more of the same (though perhaps he doesn't showcase the earlier themes in quite the fine way of Davis). The choral singing is excellent and diction is generally clearer (and there is no crampedness on 'vor gott'). The joy and excitement he brings is something (as is that tension).
I'm not sure all of that really sums up quite how wonderful I think this reading is. I'm tempted to say it is the finest I have heard. Suffice to say that more Runnicles discs ought to be entering my collection shortly. That, and if you like the 9th, you should give this a try (just £5 or so from the Amazon marketplace).
regards, Tam