Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

[BachQ]

Have you ever pondered what sort of wonders could be lurking within the website BEETHOVEN.COM?  Well, ponder no further:

   http://www.beethoven.com/ 

Hopefully, this is merely "phase 1" of a multiphased development effort for BEETHOVEN.COM ....... 

[BachQ]

Music Review: Quartet hindered by its ultra-refined approach
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
By Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Late Beethoven and Shostakovich string quartets approach pure thought in music, but chamber musicians still can overthink them.

The Alexander String Quartet, which opened the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society's season Monday night, tried too hard to attain sublimity instead of letting the music achieve it.

The Alexander -- Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz, violins, Paul Yarbrough, viola, and Sandy Wilson, cello -- interestingly play a set of similar carbon fiber bows from the German bow-maker Arcus. But the group's demure interpretations at Carnegie Music Hall had nothing to do with lightweight bows.

The ensemble was excellent, but the Alexander went for an ultra-refined reading of a pair of already sublime works and, to my ears, lost their continuity of line.

In residence at Allegheny College but based in San Francisco, the Alexander is no stranger to the world's top stages. Formed in 1981, the group still has two founding members (Wilson and Yarbrough) and has recorded the complete quartet cycles of the two composers it featured at the concert, Beethoven and Shostakovich.

But if this music was familiar to them, it was a difficult program for an audience: Shostakovich's Prelude and Fugue No. 15 (arranged by Grafilo), his Quartet No. 9 in E-flat Major and Beethoven's celebrated Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131. Beethoven's quartet is a late work in seven movements. It is ushered in from afar by a deliberate fugue and ends with an angular theme. Heard for the first time on the PCMS series, Shostakovich's Ninth has five movements performed without breaks and is full of arresting musical shifts. Both are masterpieces marked by introspection.

But the Alexander didn't help by leaving the music sitting on the stage. The quartet was constantly pulling back in volume and performing with a thin timbre, and the resulting lack of presence was enervating to the music. Adagios in the Shostakovich quartet (1964) lacked smoldering intensity; those of the Beethoven (1826) sagged. Rhythmic highlights, such as the former's rollicking finale and the latter's brisk Presto, were flat.

Simply put, the readings were largely dry and cerebral, when emotion churns throughout these works despite their sometimes stark surfaces.

We will likely get a more engaging performance when the Alexander returns to PCMS in the spring for a more visceral program, with works by John Adams, Terry Riley, Wayne Peterson and middle-period Beethoven. This is a veteran group that clearly knows its stuff and has its own style, but Monday it would have been better to play out more.

First published on October 17, 2007 at 12:00 am

[JoshLilly]

"tried too hard to attain sublimity instead of letting the music achieve it."


What the hell does that mean?! Am I the only one that finds these types of comments from music reviewers completely nonsensical?? It's almost as stupid as wine critics who attribute attitudes like "presumption" to fermented grape juice.

[locrian]

"tried too hard to attain sublimity instead of letting the music achieve it."


What the hell does that mean?! Am I the only one that finds these types of comments from music reviewers completely nonsensical?? It's almost as stupid as wine critics who attribute attitudes like "presumption" to fermented grape juice.

Sounds like they were milking it when it didn't need to be.

[JoshLilly]

"Milking it", what does that mean? Playing too slow, too fast, changing tempi in mid-movement? Too loud, too soft, using unmarked dynamics? The reviewer later comments that he felt the players had too much of a thin, quiet sound. That kind of comment makes sense.

[Gurn Blanston]

Sounds like they were milking it when it didn't need to be.

And yet, that appears to be precisely the opposite of what he says in the rest of the article. 

(I don't read reviews or criticism, I listen to the music instead)

[Florestan]

I don't read reviews or criticism, I listen to the music instead

A most wise behaviour.

[BachQ]

Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Beethoven Festival


For the first time the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performs all nine of Beethoven's symphonies in sequential order during this five weekend-long festival. Four conductors will lead, including director Jaap van Zweden.

Schedule:
Oct. 19-21: Symphonies 1, 2 and Stravinsky's Concerto for piano and Winds; Gilbert Varga, conductor, Kirill Gerstein, piano
Oct. 25-27: Symphonies 3, 4; Markus Stenz, conductor
Nov. 1-4: Symphonies 5, 6; Jaap van Zweden, conductor.
Nov. 8-11: Symphonies 6, 8 and Fidelio Overture; Van Zweden, conductor
Nov. 29-Dec. 2: Symphony No. 9 and Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw; Jirí Behlolávek, conductor

[Bogey]

And yet, that appears to be precisely the opposite of what he says in the rest of the article. 

(I don't read reviews or criticism, I listen to the music instead)

What reviews? 

[BachQ]

Dan Bar Moo Fin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJeD8ckihN8

[BachQ]

2 new Beethoven recordings

CLASSICAL CD REVIEWS: Accomplished violinists try their hands at Beethoven pairing

          1. Beethoven -- AViolin Concerto & Kreutzer Sonata. Isabelle Faust (Harmonia Mundi)
          2. Beethoven -- A-Violin Concerto & Kreutzer Sonata. Vadim Repin (DG)

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, September 29, 2007

By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News

What are the odds that two releases with this unprecedented (but logical) coupling, both so interesting, should come along the same month?

Isabelle Faust, fast becoming one of the world's most interesting violinists, takes a stylish approach to these two masterpieces, informed by period insights but basically modern. Vadim Repin, now attaining the patina of middle-aged master in this label debut, exhibits an unreconstructed and unashamed old-fashioned heroism.

Ms. Faust, accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic under Jiri Behlohlavek (once a frequent Dallas Symphony guest), gives the Violin Concerto one of its most interesting performances ever. Certainly it's my current favorite. She marches through the first movement at a relatively rapid pace, but doesn't stint on delicacy in all those filigrees. Beethoven wrote no cadenzas for the violin in this work, but he did create some for the piano adaptation he made. Ms. Faust reworks those and turns them into a personal triumph. You may never want to hear any other cadenza after you hear her tear through this one, with its timpani accompaniment.

She's also spiritual and heartfelt in the quasi-religious Adagio – but that's where Mr. Repin comes into his own in a deeply moving performance. The Vienna Philharmonic under Riccardo Muti plays the first movement for grandeur and majesty. Mr. Repin contributes a very detailed commentary on his fiddle, but it's all rather slow by modern standards. In the finale, Mr. Repin is playful, but Ms. Faust builds up more momentum.

The Kreutzer Sonata, arguably the first work Beethoven wrote to reveal his full stature, finds Mr. Repin paired with the world's most legendary pianist, Martha Argerich. If he lets her take the lead in this fiery performance, that's understandable. The team also gives the variations more weight than usual, making them look forward to much later Beethoven.

Ms. Faust, with her wonderful duet partner Alexander Melnikov, is more subdued and thoughtful, but this is also a first-class Kreutzer.

[Bogey]

Love the artwork here.

[BachQ]

Love the artwork here.

Isn't that awesome.  It just "speaks" BEETHOVEN!

[BachQ]

Bogey has undertaken a thread on LvB's 4th Symphony ....... and it illbehooves anyone to eschew active participation in this newly minted LvB 4 thread.

[BachQ]

Boston's Handel and Haydn Society Opens 2007-08 Season with Beethoven
By Matthew Westphal
19 Oct 2007


The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, the oldest continuously active performing arts organization in the United States, opens its 2007-08 season tonight by playing an all-Beethoven program at no less a venue than the city's Symphony Hall.

Grant Llewellyn, H&H's principal conductor, leads the Society's period-instrument orchestra in the Symphony No. 7 and the Piano Concerto No. 3, with Kristian Bezuidenhout playing an early 19th-century Graf fortepiano. They'll repeat the program on Sunday, Oct. 21, at 3 p.m.

[Gurn Blanston]

Boston's Handel and Haydn Society Opens 2007-08 Season with Beethoven
By Matthew Westphal
19 Oct 2007


The Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, the oldest continuously active performing arts organization in the United States, opens its 2007-08 season tonight by playing an all-Beethoven program at no less a venue than the city's Symphony Hall.

Grant Llewellyn, H&H's principal conductor, leads the Society's period-instrument orchestra in the Symphony No. 7 and the Piano Concerto No. 3, with Kristian Bezuidenhout playing an early 19th-century Graf fortepiano. They'll repeat the program on Sunday, Oct. 21, at 3 p.m.

Drat! I bet Karl is there  ( ), wish I was...



----------------
Now playing: Bia 406 Op 55 Symphony #3 in Eb (HIP) - Les Concert de Nations / Jordi Savall - Bia 406 Op 55 Symphony #3 in Eb 1st mvmt - Allegro con brio

[BachQ]

Drat! I bet Karl is there  ( ), wish I was...

Gurn, that concert would have so delighted you .........  0:)

[BachQ]

Here's an interesting concert:

Liszt: Totentanz
LvB: Choral Fantasy
Proko: Alexander Nevsky

S.F. Symphony, Masur deliver a spirited 'Nevsky'
By Richard Scheinin
Mercury News
Article Launched: 10/20/2007 01:39:36 AM PDT



The temptation is to begin a review of Thursday's concert by the San Francisco Symphony and its famous guest conductor, Kurt Masur, with a long description of "Alexander Nevsky," the cantata by Prokofiev about a 13th-century Russian warrior and hero.

After all, it blasted and swirled through Davies Symphony Hall with sounds of clashing swords and joyful shouts from the orchestra and its 141-voice chorus. And it's a historical curiosity, too, this Slavic extravaganza, adapted from Prokofiev's score to the 1938 film of the same name by Sergei Eisenstein.

But Thursday's program, which repeats tonight and Sunday afternoon, was so deliciously overstuffed - first Liszt, then Beethoven, then Prokofiev - that "Nevsky," which closed the concert, will have to wait.

So let's talk first about pianist Louis Lortie, a fabulous player who tore like a champion race-car driver through a pair of exciting and difficult works, "Totentanz" in d minor ("The Dance of Death")by Liszt and the "Choral Fantasy" by Beethoven. And let's talk more about Masur, the lanky aristocrat with the clipped white beard, who, during the Liszt, had a way of poking his index fingers in the air, funny little tapping gestures that somehow elicited waves of response from the orchestra. "Totentanz," from 1865, opened the program. It might as well be a piano concerto, but is technically a set of variations for piano and orchestra on "Dies Irae" ("Day of Wrath"), the 13th-century Latin hymn describing the Last Judgment. Cutting to the chase, "Totentanz" is a piece about death by the death-obsessed Liszt, and devilishly hard to play.

Lortie had fun with it, starting with deep spiked chords and left-handed jack-hammerings, summoning timpani and full strings, before heading into power mode, knuckling up and down the white keys - sleigh-riding! - with a delighted little smile, then moving into a death gallop, the strings riffing behind him.

His cadenza was full of gossamer filigree, giving way to a cat-and-mouse game with the orchestra, the theme passing from one section to the next, Masur giving it a nudge with the jut of an elbow or a hunched shoulder, and Lortie, near the end, becoming a two-handed blur.

As the applause mounted, he left the stage, presumably to drink a large glass of water, then returned for the "Choral Fantasy," from 1808, which is every bit as demanding. It, too, is a set of variations on a theme, one you will recognize because it is so similar to "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, completed in 1824.

The "Choral Fantasy" begins with faux improvisatory piano flights, thick with notes and neatly handled by Lortie, who then did some light sparring with strings, flutes and oboes, the piece ebbing and flowing through pastoral fantasias and mounting toward the chorus's entrance and the Big Melody. Masur, who looks like Father Christmas, pointed to the balcony behind the stage where six soloists in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus sang about peace, joy and the blessing of the gods (words penned, it's thought, by Christoph Kuffner).

This wasn't a faultless performance; notes were smudged here and there, entrances weren't airtight, some of the upstairs soloists seemed nervous. But the spirit of the music-making was bountiful.

Likewise for "Alexander Nevsky," which owes its birth to Stalin, who wanted, in the 1930s, to warn the Russian people about the dangers of German aggression. He hired Eisenstein, who based his first dramatic sound film on the story of the Grand Duke Alexander of Novgorod, winner of a famous battle at the River Neva, and therefore dubbed "Alexander of the Neva," or "Alexander Nevsky."

Prokofiev's soundtrack is the source of his cantata, from 1939, which tours cinematically through the subsequent story: the Motherland's invasion by German warriors and their defeat by Nevsky's meager Russian forces on frozen Lake Chudskoye in 1242.

If you go, you will hear lamenting oboes and ominously thrumming strings, great Latin chants and an infectious folk-derived melody for chorus ("Arise, People of Russia"), as well as the sounds of swords whacking, ice cracking and then a young woman's lament over "The Field of the Dead" (mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby sang the aria with a witness's grief) and those last victory shouts of Mother Russia.

As good as it was, I'm guessing that this weekend's performances will be tighter and even beefier, with the chorus, which sounded slightly undernourished Thursday, stepping up its impact to cap an unusually complex and rewarding program.


San Francisco Symphony and Chorus

Kurt Masur, guest conductor; Louis Lortie, piano;

Nancy Maultsby, mezzo-soprano

mercurynews

Where Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave.,

San Francisco

[BachQ]

I bet Karl is there 

Boston is a happening place:

Quartet gains a toehold in Boston
By Jeremy Eichler, Globe Staff  |  October 20, 2007

CAMBRIDGE - The classical music scene in this country is bursting with ambitious young string quartets, and at the moment, two up-and-coming ensembles are gaining toeholds in the Boston area. The Chiara String Quartet will be the Blodgett artists-in-residence at Harvard beginning next fall, and the Pacifica Quartet has already begun a three-year residency at the Longy School of Music. The latter group is based in Illinois, but the players will teach at Longy for a concentrated period each semester, and the ensemble will give regular performances, as it did Thursday night at Pickman Concert Hall.

The Pacifica's members are still young, but the group has been around for more than a decade. They are confident interpreters of the standard repertoire and also fearless exponents of contemporary music (Exhibit A: they will traverse all five quartets by Elliott Carter on a single program this season in New York). Their concert on Thursday effectively balanced two cornerstones of the literature - a Beethoven Quartet (Op. 59, No. 3) and a Beethoven-obsessed Mendelssohn Quartet (Op. 13) - with a 20th-century masterpiece, Ligeti's Quartet No. 1, "Métamorphoses Nocturnes."
The Mendelssohn came first, and as was evident from the opening slow chorale, the group possesses a well-blended, dark-amber sound, polished at a medium gloss. Masumi Rostad (viola) and Brandon Vamos (cello) provide a smooth and elegant grounding in the bass, and Simin Ganatra (first violin) and Sibbi Bernhardsson (second violin) play brilliantly together, though they are a less seamless match in temperament. The outer movements of the Mendelssohn brim with stormy lyricism, and the Pacifica navigated both of them with a winning blend of ensemble precision and expressive heat. The third movement was very clearly etched, though it might have benefited from a somewhat lighter touch and a more diaphanous ensemble sound.

Ligeti's First Quartet, written in 1953-54, essentially picks up where the Bartok quartets leave off. The piece's 12 short movements are strung together and built on a concise four-note motive that gets sliced, diced, and transformed in every way imaginable. In what was the strongest performance of the night, the Pacifica players gave themselves over completely to the work's haunting extraterrestrial soundscapes. Without shying away from the music's violent extremes and gnashing dissonances, they stayed attuned to its sudden flashes of irony and humor, and for that matter, its moments of serene beauty.

The Pacifica dispatched the Beethoven with impressive clarity and commitment, even if the reading had room to continue deepening. There is perhaps more pathos to be found in the doleful waves of the second movement, and the turbocharged fugal finale, which features about six of the most exhilarating minutes of chamber music ever written, had a slightly restrained quality, short on the surging momentum and volcanic power that the best readings can convey.

Still, at intermission, several students in the audience could be heard making awestruck comments about the Ligeti. The Pacifica is clearly an excellent young ensemble whose members should inspire those they teach. Longy is wise to have recruited them.

[Varg]

His "Moonlight" Sonata (1st movement) is such a powerful work. I like it slow and heavy, and Alain Lefevre's interpretation is my favorite so far.

The second movement of his 7th Symphony is another favorite, conducted by Monsieur Fürtwangler.