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stuart macrae
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« Reply #90 on: 20:11:25, 13-09-2008 » |
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What a pity that Lesley Garrett wasn't up to it.  A masterpiece of understatement, IGI. But then you lasted the piece; I'm afraid I turned off after the first few bars I had just typed almost these exact words pw  |
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Antheil
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« Reply #91 on: 07:50:31, 22-09-2008 » |
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According to The Independent today after the conducting by Sue Perkins and Goldie of Beethoven Sales of Symphony No 5 in C minor have almost quadrupled since its performance in the final of the series earlier this month. The high street music chain HMV said demand for recordings of the symphony increased by 295 per cent after the two finalists were called on to conduct its opening movement.
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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Ruby2
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« Reply #92 on: 09:02:32, 22-09-2008 » |
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According to The Independent today after the conducting by Sue Perkins and Goldie of Beethoven Sales of Symphony No 5 in C minor have almost quadrupled since its performance in the final of the series earlier this month. The high street music chain HMV said demand for recordings of the symphony increased by 295 per cent after the two finalists were called on to conduct its opening movement.
Whaaaaat? This all rather puzzles me - I know my views on Beethoven aren't universally shared (most of his stuff bores the pants off me) but they covered much more emotive stuff than that on the series. I really don't get the appeal of Symphony No 5 at all.  |
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"Two wrongs don't make a right. But three rights do make a left." - Rohan Candappa
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #93 on: 12:19:53, 22-09-2008 » |
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I know my views on Beethoven aren't universally shared (most of his stuff bores the pants off me) but they covered much more emotive stuff than that on the series. I really don't get the appeal of Symphony No 5 at all. Could the appeal this time be because they played it more than once, so people managed to remember the first four notes, and therefore thought they knew it? |
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Ruby2
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« Reply #94 on: 12:43:33, 22-09-2008 » |
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I know my views on Beethoven aren't universally shared (most of his stuff bores the pants off me) but they covered much more emotive stuff than that on the series. I really don't get the appeal of Symphony No 5 at all. Could the appeal this time be because they played it more than once, so people managed to remember the first four notes, and therefore thought they knew it? Yes I thought that might have been it. Coupled with its general fame anyway, that's probably enough. But if people are buying it because of the position it has in almost defining "classical music" to a lot of people, as a sort of souvenir of the series, that's where I get annoyed (I know I have no evidence of that - only suspicions). I was annoyed enough that they chose to end on that piece because I feel as though a lot of the stick that classical music gets from the general populous is exactly because of that piece and similarly overplayed and over-rated pieces. Say "classical music" and I'm sure there are thousands out there who instantly think "duh duh duh duuuuuuuuuuhh... Yawn." |
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"Two wrongs don't make a right. But three rights do make a left." - Rohan Candappa
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Milly Jones
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« Reply #95 on: 13:39:16, 22-09-2008 » |
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It's such a shame that the beginning is so hackneyed and well-known. The rest of the symphony is beautiful I think. It's just been played to death unfortunately.
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We pass this way but once. This is not a rehearsal!
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martle
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« Reply #96 on: 13:42:34, 22-09-2008 » |
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Not for me! I can't get enough of it - one of the most powerful, focused and driven pieces of music in history, surely! And, in amongst all the naff selections on Maestro, and despite the ubiquity of those first four notes, I thought it was quite a good idea for the final challenge: lots of awkward corners, ritenutos, pauses, mass syncopations etc.
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Green. Always green.
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Ruby2
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« Reply #97 on: 14:18:00, 22-09-2008 » |
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Not for me! I can't get enough of it - one of the most powerful, focused and driven pieces of music in history, surely! And, in amongst all the naff selections on Maestro, and despite the ubiquity of those first four notes, I thought it was quite a good idea for the final challenge: lots of awkward corners, ritenutos, pauses, mass syncopations etc.
Oh well, at least we agree on beans.  I'm sure you're right about the technical challenge, it's just a general effect Beethoven tends to have on me (or not have on me). I don't know his entire repertoire but, for example, I caught the tail end of something on R3 the other day, thinking "this is a bit dry" and it turned out to be Beethoven. I've given up trying - I just can't get on with it - it feels all the same colour. I can't even maintain interest in the Violin Concerto, and I really have tried - my brain just wanders off. Maybe I'm in the extreme minority then and people are buying it because they like it. Let's hope so. |
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"Two wrongs don't make a right. But three rights do make a left." - Rohan Candappa
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #98 on: 14:25:17, 22-09-2008 » |
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I like Beethoven's piano works and string quartets, but not his vocal works or most of the symphonies. To a lot of people, though, he is "classical music", along with Mozart - though I'd have thought nowadays "Nessun Dorma" is what would come to mind for many, rather than a symphony by anyone.
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #99 on: 14:28:19, 22-09-2008 » |
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I can't even maintain interest in the Violin Concerto, and I really have tried - my brain just wanders off.
Actually, I love Beethoven's music for the most part, but the Violin Concerto has that effect on me too ... I'd be interested in knowing a bit more about the numbers. What is HMV selling here? Complete performances of the Fifth on CD? Compilation discs that happen to include it? Or downloads of the first movement? If the former, it would be interesting to know whether new listeners have been led inrto the rest of the symphony (IMO the finale remains one of the most exciting pieces of music ever written and it never palls on repetition), or even to the inevitable couplings. |
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Morticia
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« Reply #100 on: 14:29:15, 22-09-2008 » |
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Wonder if sales of Stravinsky's 'Firebird' have shot up? I thought Sue Perkins did a fine job of that. Even if Vengerov disagreed. Then again, it was her own choice, so maybe it doesn't 'count'. Not enough popular appeal perhaps?
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Ruby2
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« Reply #101 on: 14:36:12, 22-09-2008 » |
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I like Beethoven's piano works and string quartets, but not his vocal works or most of the symphonies.
That's an interesting point actually because I find his piano stuff far more tolerable than the symphonies - for instance Moonlight is one of the few things that I've learned to play [the first bit of], and I don't learn much because I can't sight-read the left hand, so what I can play is from memory. Maybe I should seek out more. After I've ordered all the stuff that I actually want, when I win the lottery...  |
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"Two wrongs don't make a right. But three rights do make a left." - Rohan Candappa
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Ted Ryder
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« Reply #102 on: 16:35:55, 22-09-2008 » |
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I'm a Beethoven fan but after an acquaintace of fifty years I would not be too unhappy if I never heard the seventh symphony again.
When Beethoven himself was asked why the 7th was so much more popular than the 8th he replied it was because the 8th was a much better work. It is strange that after 200 years public opinion has not changed. Beecham said something about the last movement of the 7th sounding like a herd of heifers prancing around a field. I wonder if Wagners "apotheosis of the dance" comment was made after a rigorous performace of the second movement piano duet version played by himself and Frau Wesendonck, the rhythms of the symphony seem rather too heavy-handed (footed), too earth bound to be god-like.
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I've got to get down to Sidcup.
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #103 on: 17:36:07, 22-09-2008 » |
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I can't sight-read the left hand, so what I can play is from memory. Why don't you learn? It's not very hard to read the notes, and I'm sure there's help online somewhere. Of course, playing them well is another matter entirely |
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Antheil
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« Reply #104 on: 20:52:15, 22-09-2008 » |
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As the end topic of this thread is Beethoven's 5th, I wonder who wins the awards?
I have just had Roger Norrington, (rather bland and middle class I think) now I have switched to Furtwangler. Far more driven, far more emotion.
When it comes to Eroica then it has to be Karajan for me, passion unbounded.
What do others think?
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Reality, sa molesworth 2, is so sordid it makes me shudder
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