Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

[Mandryka]

Wondering if anyone has listened to this CD by the pianist Luisa Guembes-Buchanan (Sonatas 28, 30-32 and Diabelli Variations).

What do people think?

P
She highlights the comedy, buffoonery. There's nothing reverential here. I don't think the interpretations are too workmanlike either. She's often funny and down to earth, though she can be rapt when she wants to be, like in the second half of the arietta, where she achieves a kind of ecstacy I think. There are rubato things going on, she's not at all stiff. The sound, tone, is not burnished: silver, wood and leather rather than chocolate and  gold.  And the textures tend to be pretty transparent and evenly balanced. The timbre is quite distinctive.

She's written about the internal connections between these pieces. She has ideas about Beethoven's music.

[calyptorhynchus]

Thanks Mandryka

Might give that set a whirl.

[Bogey]

Not sure if you folks can help me out.  I was listening to Op. 20 (Septet) tonight played by the Wiener Kammerensemble.  It is noted in the booklet to have been recorded in '77 (on the DG label).

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When browsing Amazon I found this one:

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Is this a different recording?  I cannot make out the dating?

[Opus106]

I cannot make out the dating?

From the back-cover: ℗1993.

[Bogey]

From the back-cover: ℗1993.

Thanks!  The photo on the front looks like it could be a '93 shot.  Maybe they recorded it twice for two different labels.  Now if I could find a copy at a reasonable price. Yikes!

[Leo K.]

I've kept this CD since 1989, for two reasons. First, it is nostalgia, second, the andante theme is quite moving.

Beethoven's 10th, 1st movement as imagined by Barry Cooper, using sketches from Beethoven's late-period sketchbooks. Barry Cooper, specialist of Beethoven, studied these documents and estimated that the first movement of the symphony could be achieved. Of the 531 bars of the movement, 300 are taken directly from Beethoven's manuscripts.

We hear 2 major sections, the first one will remind you of the "pathetic" piano sonata. It's so beautiful it's worth the price. As a unified piece, rather than the first movement of a nonexistent complete work, Cooper's arrangement is somewhat successful. My only criticism is that the extreme contrast between the central Allegro section and the bracketing Andante parts may have been intended as two separate movements. A slow introductory movement followed by a faster and more energetic one corresponds to other late Beethoven, but reattempted by a musicologist centuries later, interesting, and confirms my theory that a musicologist is actually a conceptual artist. This reconstructon also bears more than a passing resemblance to Brahms' First, which lends an amusing irony to the fact that for many years, Brahms' First was nicknamed "Beethoven's Tenth." The main subject alternates with a haunting G minor second theme, and the development section trails off into The E Flat major Andante theme that brackets the middle storm-like theme, yet the phrasing of the themes suffer somewhat from being reconstructed. They're well written musically and certainly competently played here; still the andante section is so full of beauty. However, the central C minor Allegro is Beethoven at his fiery, intense best. It's a demonic dance in 6/8 time that brings to mind the first movement of his Fifth.

[calyptorhynchus]

And has anyone heard this disk? What's the verdict?

[calyptorhynchus]

Can't seem to get that image to show. Oh we'll, it'sMarios Papadopoulos playing the last three piano sonatas.

[mc ukrneal]

Can't seem to get that image to show. Oh we'll, it'sMarios Papadopoulos playing the last three piano sonatas.

You need to show the image by going into the properties of the image on the listing page (not the photo page you were trying to link) and pasting the URL of that image (like so):


You may also want to post this in the sonatas thread.

[TheGSMoeller]

Looking for some Pastoral recommendations. I have some good recordings of the 6th but am searching for some more. Perhaps some of you fine Folk could list a few of your favorites and why they are just that.

Thanks! 

[Mandryka]

Looking for some Pastoral recommendations. I have some good recordings of the 6th but am searching for some more. Perhaps some of you fine Folk could list a few of your favorites and why they are just that.

Thanks! 

The live one here is the one I like most:

[NJ Joe]

Looking for some Pastoral recommendations. I have some good recordings of the 6th but am searching for some more. Perhaps some of you fine Folk could list a few of your favorites and why they are just that.

Thanks! 

Hi,

I like Walter's famous Columbia SO recording, Szell, and HvK '77, but generally prefer those with a first movement exposition repeat.

For brisker tempos, Gardiner, Bernstein NY, and Mackerras SCO.  For broader tempos, Harnoncourt and Klemperer.

And for just right:



I haven't had the chance to evaluate Immerseel or Jarvi yet.

[TheGSMoeller]

Thanks, Mandryka and NJ Joe for the replies.   

I have the Bernstein NY (Sony) and the Harnoncourt, both excellent. Will have to locate that Bohm disc, seems to always be mentioned as a top 6th, plus a coupling of Schubert's 5th ain't bad either.

[prémont]

Hi,

I like Walter's famous Columbia SO recording, Szell, and HvK '77, but generally prefer those with a first movement exposition repeat.

For brisker tempos, Gardiner, Bernstein NY, and Mackerras SCO.  For broader tempos, Harnoncourt and Klemperer.

Walter´s CSO recording is one of my favorites.

As to Klemperer I prefer his mono recording  for Vox with VSO to the later EMI Philharmonia recording. The former evokes the rural mood of this work in a more convincing way.

[Karl Henning]

. . . For brisker tempos, Gardiner, Bernstein NY, and Mackerras SCO.  For broader tempos, Harnoncourt and Klemperer.

Considering the variety in the recorded legacy, it's almost as if there had been no metronome in Beethoven's day, isn't it? ; )

[Mandryka]

One important thing for me is that the symphony takes on the feeling of a spiritual journey.  You have that in the live Mengelberg and maybe most of all in a recording I have with Takashi Asahina. Herman Scherchen also recorded a good version of it.

I also remember enjoying Maag and Casals.

[mszczuj]

My favorite interpretation is as usual this of Goodman who plays it as if its melodies were folk melodies. If I remember correctly Paavo Jarvi was not bad as well. The last movement is very fine in Norrington first recording.

I think this symphony the kind of treatise considering human, society, nature and God, but being the treatise is not the reason to play folk melodies as if they were not folk melodies. I can't imagine 6th symphony played worse that Furtwangler did it in his war recording.

[Mandryka]

My favorite interpretation is as usual this of Goodman who plays it as if its melodies were folk melodies. If I remember correctly Paavo Jarvi was not bad as well. The last movement is very fine in Norrington first recording.

I think this symphony the kind of treatise considering human, society, nature and God, but being the treatise is not the reason to play folk melodies as if they were not folk melodies. I can't imagine 6th symphony played worse that Furtwangler did it in his war recording.

Oh but there's a lovely warm one from Furtwangler, 1954 Berlin

[Brahmsian]

Wow, there hasn't been a post in the main Ludwig thread since March 2013?   

Listening to these youthful, vibrant works of Beethoven, his 3 Piano Quartets, WoO36.  Not top shelf LVB, but lovely works still, for a 15 year old.  Already in the first quartet, he writes a variation final movement!  Love the opening Adagio movement, and then leading into that raucous 2nd mvt.!!  Had not listened to these for some time.

Performance:

Eschenbach, piano
Amadeus Quartet

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Think I'm going to spend some time listening to LVB's piano trios, wind chamber works and other miscellaneous non-string quartet, and non violin sonata works. 

[Brahmsian]

Listening to this excellent set of string trios.

Trio in E flat, Op. 3
*Serenade in D major, Op. 8
Trio in G major, Op. 9/1
Trio in D major, Op. 9/2
Trio in C minor, Op. 9/3

*The Serenade has a marvelous middle movement Adagio-scherzo, allegro.  A great contrasting movement, and also a great variations 6th movement.

Zurich String Trio

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Brilliant Classics