Damn! I wish I'd written that!

[dellzeqq]

You're on to a bit of a loser writing about music (and cycling, let me tell you). Critics default in to a kind of list thing where you say 'oh, this song reminds me of Wayne Fontana/Dizzee Rascal/whatever'.

Writing about the stuff itself, describing the notes, the melody, is really, really tough. I've got a bunch of books on my shelf by Hanslick, Said and all sorts, and..........well, you wouldn't say they convey what you hear.

But Tom Service has written the opener for a new Grauniad series on symphonies and it's a humdinger! No pussyfooting around - he's piled the words in to sentences just like Beethoven piled the notes in to bars. And the recording he's linked to is pretty blinding as well. Give it a go!

http://www.theguardian.com/music/to...16/symphony-guide-beethoven-fifth-tom-service

 

[pplpilot]

It's a bit cliché but 5th is one of my favourites. Although if I had to choose 7th would be my desert island disc.
I've listened to Beethoven for the best part of 25 years in particular the 9 symphonies. I had a drunken bet with a friend once that she could play me 5 seconds of any movement of any Beethoven symphony and id get it within another 5 seconds. I won. It took about a dozen or so attempts for me to fail!
One of my most memorable nights out was the 6th and 7th with Simon Rattle conducting Berlin Philharmonic at the Birmingham Symphony hall. Magical.

 

[asterix]

Damn! I wish I'd written that!

Maybe you will?

 

[Profpointy]

Time for a "best" list I feel, here's my incomplete starter for 10 (or I should say, starter for 9 I guess)
It's from memory, so not recentlŷ cross checked for the "lesser" symhonies, if you'll forgive the terrm
1st - no reall favourite, perhaps Furtwangler
2nd - not sure
3rd Fricsay
4th - not sure
5th - Kleiber - no argument ! The definitive verson?
6th - not got a very good one of this - not Chailly whose version is awfull and cheesy, though rest of his set is rather exciting
7th - I think nearly all my versions of this are fine. perhaps Chailly, or Zinman, or Kleiber, though Jochum's version is one I'd like to hear in full - I gather it's him on the sound track of Zardoz - slow movement - which is outstanding.
8th - not sure - I've several not great versions, but it is still a great symphony if done well
9th Furtwangler - specifically a live version from (i think) 1945.

On sets - Zinman / tonhalle Zurich is outsanding - a fresh, very light and "classical" version totally un-like the Germanic "big band" sound we've ben brought up with. Fantastic !

Chailly, dazzling and exciting, but very very bad 6th

Herbert von K / Berlin phil - dreadfull! All the notes, but with all the music squeezed out - think his 1st was Ok. Pity as I'd had high hopes of our Herbie for the big band take on beethoven

 

[pplpilot]

Time for a "best" list I feel, here's my incomplete starter for 10 (or I should say, starter for 9 I guess)
It's from memory, so not recentlŷ cross checked for the "lesser" symhonies, if you'll forgive the terrm
1st - no reall favourite, perhaps Furtwangler
2nd - not sure
3rd Fricsay
4th - not sure
5th - Kleiber - no argument ! The definitive verson?
6th - not got a very good one of this - not Chailly who's version is awfull and cheesy, though rest of his set is pretty dazling.
7th - I think nearly all my versions of this are fine. perhaps Chailly, or Zinman, or Kleiber, though Jochum's version is one I'd like to hear in full - I gather it's him on the sound track of Zardoz - slow movement - which is outstanding.
8th - not sure - I've several not great versions, but it is still a great symphony if done well
9th Furtwangler - specifically a live version from (i think) 1945.

On sets - Zinman / tonhalle Zurich is outsanding - a fresh, very light and "classical" version totally like the Germanic "big band" sound we've ben brought up with. Fantastic !

Chailly, dazzling and exciting, but very very bad 6th

Herbert von K / Berlin phil - dreadfull! All the notes, but with all the music squeezed out - think his 1st was Ok
Had high hopes of this, as a big band alternative to zinnan..

I'm partial to Harnoncourt / Chamber orchestra of Europe complete recordings. Probably not the best but they hold many memories for me...

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I'm not sure I get the significance of not knowing which key the opening motif is in. If, for the first time you heard three blind mice being performed in unison (as the 5th), you couldn't actually be sure what key it was in until the 3rd phrase (as in the 5th) because the tune 3 blind mice has the same potential ambivalence as to whether it's moving between third to tonic (major) or fifth to minor third. I wonder, do musicologists study nursery rhymes with the same passion? (I'm sure there's someone on here who will be able to supply links.)

 

[User169]

Kleiber for me, although Eliot Gardiner is persuasive too.

There was a preliminary article introducing the series with this fighting talk:

"Because if you accept the idea that instrumental music is capable of "saying" anything at all, then it's in the symphony that that power is released most grandly, most extravagantly, and most directly. The symphony is the ultimate embodiment of the idealist notion of music being the "highest of the arts", a place beyond words or representative images in which transcendent feelings were given pure, unadulterated expression."

I guess I'm with him on grandness and extravagance. but more and more I'd look to st qts for "pure, unadulterated expression".

 

[Fnaar]

Don't One Direction deserve a mention?

 

[Moon bunny]

The ninth is my personal favourite.




Shostakovich's ninth that is. Beethoven? Bah! Humbug!

 

[Shut Up Legs]

Don't One Direction deserve a mention?

Not until their combined age at least equals a human lifespan .

 

[swee'pea99]

the tune 3 blind mice has the same potential ambivalence as to whether it's moving between third to tonic (major) or fifth to minor third.

Cycle forums eh? Always the same old same old...helmets or not, red light jumpers, the potential ambivalence in 3 blind mice...honestly, can't we think of something new to post about? Tch.

 

[User169]

Doubtless, Eroica will come at a later date, but the BBC made an very enjoyable movie with Ian Hart as Ludwig, supposedly based on its first performance. This section has the dressing down of his pupil Reis (6:10) which I think is basically factual. The best bit though is Beethoven strolling off at 4:00 to smooch the laydeez. You never got to see Herb van Karajan do that at the Berlin Phil, eh!


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiuFvDOcxy0

 

[Profpointy]

The Eroica certainly blows away the "difficult 3rd album" cliche. 1st is pretty good, 2nd breaks some new ground, but the 3rd totally changes music for ever. the next big event in music is at least arguably the Rite of Spring a century later !

My favourite symphony of all is probably Schubert's 9th - 60 minutes of sheer perfection, but our Ludwig would still get 3 of the top 10 places.

 

[dellzeqq]

The Eroica certainly blows away the "difficult 3rd album" cliche. 1st is pretty good, 2nd breaks some new ground, but the 3rd totally changes music for ever. the next big event in music is at least arguably the Rite of Spring a century later !

My favourite symphony of all is probably Schubert's 9th - 60 minutes of sheer perfection, but our Ludwig would still get 3 of the top 10 places.

couldn't agree more. "From this day forward, everything [in music] is changed"

 

[swee'pea99]

On ebay, it's changed more than just music...