Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

[BachQ]

Nice Avatar, Varg ..........

[BachQ]

As to LvB 4 ........ says one GMG'er ......

Best Beethoven 4th in captivity. The joyousness of the music making is overwhelming.

[BachQ]

Waldstein on fortepiano 1/3

http://www.youtube.com/v/TjZJvQTV_M8

According to the Youtube^TM blurb:

"Beethoven's sonata Waltstein Aurora played on a fortepiano, the early version of our modern piano, in fact the transition between the harpsichord and our pianoforte. The fortepiano is tuned at 420Hz as was usually done in Beethoven's period, and not 440Hz as is mostly done actually ....."

[BachQ]

Waldstein on fortepiano  3/3

http://www.youtube.com/v/dhrqJj62hPg

[Varg]

I have to add another great Beethoven conductor/performer: Barenboim. I received his symphonies/sonatas cycles today. Only listened to the 5th and 7th symphonies (and some sonatas) so far. He seems to bettering what i like so much about Fürtwangler; in fact, i'm so impress that Fürtwangler may never find his way to my CD player again (i'm only half kidding here)!

[prémont]

... a fortepiano, the early version of our modern piano, in fact the transition between the harpsichord and our pianoforte. ....

I am speechless

[Gurn Blanston]

Waldstein on fortepiano 1/3

Beethoven's sonata Waltstein Aurora played on a fortepiano, the early version of our modern piano, in fact the transition between the harpsichord and our pianoforte. The fortepiano is tuned at 420Hz as was usually done in Beethoven's period, and not 440Hz as is mostly done actually .....

If in fact the fortepiano is transitional, it is only temporally. Harpsichords pluck, fortepianos (and pianos) hammer. They do indeed fill the time period between the cembalo and the pianoforte, but that is the only real transitional position they occupy.

[BachQ]

From The Times
October 22, 2007

Gabrieli Consort/McCreesh
Geoff Brown at the Barbican


For 25 years now Paul McCreesh's Gabrieli Consort and Players have been ferreting around performing early, Renaissance and Baroque music in imaginative and uplifting ways. But modern music can't be denied forever. Last Thursday they reached 1823.

It's the year that Beethoven finished his Missa Solemnis. From other composers, the title could intimate a marble slab, monumental, almost funereal. With Beethoven that was never possible. Yet the vivacity that McCreesh's team brought to the notes still slapped us in the face. Numbers on stage were modest, but the decibels were not.

And with the full-throated choir, the plangent woodwinds, the four natural horns, and gut-string violins stripped of all Vaseline, clarity and colour reigned supreme: such a change from the acoustic fog of Westminster Cathedral's Monteverdi Vespers performed a few days before.

Most of McCreesh's quartet of soloists matched the chorus in ebullience. The exception was the tenor Werner Güra. In lieder recitals he's reliably expressive; here, until the final Agnus Dei, he was the sandwich filling that you couldn't taste.

Maybe he felt intimidated by his right-hand neighbour, the mezzo Christianne Stotijn, who sang with 110 per cent commitment, the tone effulgent, the mouth open wide – what a joy to be her dentist. In ringing declaration Susan Gritton and Neal Davies, soprano and bass, came a good second and third; though during the Sanctus every voice played second fiddle to the fiddle of the musicians' leader Catherine Martin, circling above in her solo with exceptional, melting beauty.

Was this performance too crisp and energetic to do complete justice to the work's grandeur? The question hung in the air, nibbling a little at the pleasure. In the Credo an ensemble lurch in McCreesh's sprinting finale showed the risks of speeding; at times we needed sunglasses to shield us from the music's glare.

Yet, in the end, not much stature was lost. Beethoven wasn't writing for church mice, and the Gabrielis sent us back into the world cleaned, revived, sanctified for the battles ahead. They should perform more modern music.

[BachQ]

Time Out Chicago / Issue 138 : October 18, 2007 - October 24, 2007
Tower of London
Brit pianist Paul Lewis always thinks big.

By Marc Geelhoed



The playing is remarkably direct, with no affectations drawing attention to the performer, no sense of "instructing" the audience about the music's greatness, but at the same time rigorously devoted to it. English pianist Paul Lewis's ongoing recording cycle—currently at the halfway point—of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas captures the elegance of the works as well as their visceral rage. Lewis, 35, also proves himself to be as eloquent in discussing the sonatas as he is in playing them. He's touring Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with the London Symphony as part of Sir Colin Davis's 80th birthday celebration, which makes its local stop Monday 22.

[tiroirdelmare]

If in fact the fortepiano is transitional, it is only temporally. Harpsichords pluck, fortepianos (and pianos) hammer. They do indeed fill the time period between the cembalo and the pianoforte, but that is the only real transitional position they occupy.

I put that video of my wife playing on the fortepiano online. Yeah, that's exactly how I meant it : the clavier instrument that was used in the period between the use of the harpsichord and the modern piano. Still, I'm just writing down this stuff as an amateur, as well for the piano-like-instrument-history as for the English language, any correction is very welcome!

[Gurn Blanston]

I put that video of my wife playing on the fortepiano online. Yeah, that's exactly how I meant it : the clavier instrument that was used in the period between the use of the harpsichord and the modern piano. Still, I'm just writing down this stuff as an amateur, as well for the piano-like-instrument-history as for the English language, any correction is very welcome!

Cool! That was quite interesting. I would like to know anything about the background of that particular instrument (maker, year, that sort of thing).

I am personally a great fan of fortepianos (thousands aren't ), and always welcome an opportunity to see/hear one being played.

[BachQ]

LvB VC released 10/23/07 (w/ Egmont & Brahms VS in D)

[BachQ]

Another LvB VC released unto mankind, this time performed by Grimiaux and bundled with Viotti 22



MUSICWEB REVIEW:

*** In this later 1966 LP recording he was partnered by the New Philharmonia under Alceo Galliera and isn't to be confused with the early 1970s recording with the Concertgebouw and Colin Davis – Grumiaux of course made multiple recordings of the Concerto.

Galliera manages to infuse some real metrical tension into the opening orchestral introduction, one that Grumiaux enhances. His trill is of electric velocity, the vibrato perfectly controlled, the gestures classical and pellucid, the phrasing of rapt naturalness. There are no emotive finger position changes that call attention to themselves; everything is directed inward, including the powerful orchestral pianissimo de Waart prepares for Grumiaux throughout the first movement. Refinement and lyricism are the watchwords of the slow movement and the finale, whilst never an adrenalin producer, ratchets enough of its own rhythmic drama to stimulate, educate and enliven. This is playing of elevation and finesse.

The companion concerto is a rather unlikely one from the perspective of a professional player – the college standby of Viotti's A minor [No.22]. This is a work that most players have essayed at some stage though few elite players have committed it to disc, though Menuhin did, and so did Accardo, De Vito, Morini, David Oistrakh and Stern – some have been recorded in concert or privately such as the superb Shumsky piano-accompanied version on Biddulph and a live Kreisler torso. This is a charmer of a performance, long on Gallant charm and garnished with some silkily elegant work in the genial slow movement, and some dashing passagework throughout. Is that a passing passage of poor intonation at 5.55 in the first movement? Never mind.

The Viotti was originally coupled on LP with the then relatively newly rediscovered concerto by Michael Haydn and though it's not the most obvious bedfellow for the Beethoven it's not been re-issued for a good while and I prefer it to yet another re-issue of the two Romances.

Jonathan Woolf

[karlhenning]

How do you like the Schniederhahn, mon vieux?

[BachQ]

How do you like the Schniederhahn, mon vieux?

It just so happens that I had asked Terry Barfoot that precise question, for which I received this response:

Wolfgang Schneiderhan (1915-2002) was one of the finest violinists of his generation. He made a successful solo career founded upon the central classics of the concerto and solo repertory. This new compilation therefore captures him on his home territory; and most rewarding it is too. 

To begin with, the recorded sound is thoroughly acceptable in the case of the Brahms sonata, and much better than that in the case of the Beethoven concerto and its attendant overture. Carl Seeman was a sensitive pianist, perfectly suited to the role of duo partner, and the judgements of tempo and balance are well made in this Brahms performance, recorded live at the 1956 Edinburgh Festival. It says much for the stature of these artists that they could command a platform in a major concert venue, usually the preserve of orchestral rather than chamber music. While the sound has little bloom, it is admirable clear and all the details can be heard. What is more, the performance offers many insights, not least in the eloquent violin lines of the second movement Adagio. 

Istvan Kertész developed a highly successful relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra, and their full-toned performance of the Egmont Overture has excellent playing and a recorded sound that has a marvellously full body. This and the attendant concerto recording feature some of the best sound to be encountered in this important BBC Legends series. All credit to the original recording engineers, as to Tony Faulkner's remastering. It seems scarcely credible that the performances took place 43 years ago. 

The performances themselves are impressive too. While that of the Egmont Overture does not really catch fire until the coda, known as the 'Symphony of Victory', the quality of the playing and the orchestral sound provide ample compensation. But for a really powerful and electric Egmont Overture try George Szell and the Vienna Philharmonic, coupled with the complete incidental music (Decca 425 972-2). 

Schneiderhan was a celebrated exponent of the Beethoven concerto and his Deutsche Grammophon recording (447 403) with Eugen Jochum and the Berlin Philharmonic has generally been highly regarded. At the Festival Hall in 1964 he again preferred Beethoven's cadenza with timpani, arranged by the composer from his piano arrangement of the original concerto. He plays throughout with secure and full intonation, aided by a sympathetically warm acoustic, which was well captured by the original recording. Perhaps the microphone placement favours the soloist in the perspective, but that is hardly unusual. Once established the tempi always feel just right in every movement. 

As with the other issues in this series, there is no information about the music, but a full and well researched accompanying note about the artist in focus. This admirable example is by Tully Potter. Perhaps this is selling the project short, since Schneiderhan and Kertész give us an interpretation of the Beethoven Violin Concerto that can stand alongside the best. 

Terry Barfoot [/color] 

[karlhenning]

Well, I admit I generally expected good things, enjoying the Kertész/LSO account of the Dvořák cycle, and Schniederhahn's recording of the Stravinsky Violin Concerto as well as I do . . . .

[tiroirdelmare]

Cool! That was quite interesting. I would like to know anything about the background of that particular instrument (maker, year, that sort of thing).

I am personally a great fan of fortepianos (thousands aren't ), and always welcome an opportunity to see/hear one being played.

Well, the story I heard from the re-builder was the following :
this fortepiano has been found in the basement of a school in Italy about ten years ago, during the restauration of that school. The masons found it funny to drop cement on the keyboard(!) but when the director of the school saw this he sent the fortepiano to a fortepiano re-builder, who managed to keep the old mechanic with the original leather on the hammers. I remember there were inscriptions of "Wien" on the front of the fortepiano, but don't know about the date.
For me it was the first time I saw a fortepiano and even my wife said it was so fantastic to play on it that she would never play the waldstein on a modern piano anymore But I guess that was just an emotional reaction, knowing her

[BachQ]

Note to Gurn: during next roadtrip to Italy, investigate the basements of old schools and churches ........

[BachQ]

Twelve Things You Probably Didn't Know About Beethoven
By Laurie Shulman
23 Oct 2007


In honor of the Dallas Symphony's Beethoven Festival (Oct. 18-Nov. 11 and Nov. 29-Dec 2), a dozen tasty bits of trivia.



Many music lovers consider Beethoven to be the greatest musical genius who ever lived. The literature about him is expansive, since scholars continue to examine every aspect of his life and works. The general public has been no less curious, flocking to films such as Bernard Rose's Immortal Beloved (1994). Consequently, we know more about Beethoven than other composers--or think we do. Even seasoned concertgoers, however, may be surprised at some unusual information about his background, life, and colorful personality. Consider the following:

1. Beethoven's grandfather, also named Ludwig [Louis] van Beethoven (1712-1773), was the first of three generations of Beethoven musicians. Born in Antwerp, he later moved to Bonn to take the position of Hofkapellmeister in the court of Elector Maximilian Friedrich of Cologne.

2. Under the tutelage of his most important instructor, Christian Gottlob Neefe, Beethoven learned Bach's complete Well-Tempered Clavier, 48 preludes and fugues that were not well known in the 1780s. He was playing them by memory in his early teens.

3. Beethoven's first professional position was as court organist to Elector Max Franz in 1784. Five years later, he was playing viola in the elector's court orchestra; he was also a capable violinist.

4. Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother and king of Westphalia at the height of Napoleon's empire, offered Beethoven the position of Kapellmeister in 1808. (The composer declined.)

5. After a visit to Vienna in 1817, the English piano maker Thomas Broadwood sent Beethoven a six-octave grand piano. According to Broadwood's biographer David Wainwright, "The case was Spanish mahogany, inlaid with marquetry and ormolu, the brass carrying-handles formed as laurel wreaths." Beethoven's name was inscribed along with a Latin translation noting the gift. Broadwood enlisted five other musicians to autograph the instrument, including the pianists Frederic Kalkbrenner and Johann Baptist Cramer. Franz Liszt acquired the instrument around 1846. Eventually he presented it to the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.

6. Twelve museums in five European countries are devoted to Beethoven. Four of them are in Vienna, where he lived for most of his life, moving frequently within the city.

7. Beethoven's favorite composers were Mozart, Haydn, Bach, and Handel (he preferred Handel to Bach). Among older composers, he also revered Palestrina. Although he was critical of most contemporaries, he admired the operas of Spontini and Cherubini.

8. The concept of heroism, and specifically the death of a hero, is a recurrent theme in such great Beethoven works as the "Eroica" Symphony, the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, Op. 85, and the incidental music to Goethe's Egmont. But heroism surfaced much earlier in Beethoven's music. His first known composition was a funeral cantata from 1781 that has not survived; in 1790 the city of Bonn commissioned him to write the Cantata on the Death of the Emperor Joseph II. We know it as WoO 87.

9. Most major composers have a thematic catalogue compiled by scholars. Bach has the Schmieder catalogue, abbreviated S. (or BWV for Bach Werke Verzeichnis); Mozart has the Köchel catalogue (source of the K. number); and Schubert the Deutsch catalogue (abbreviated D). Beethoven has multiple catalogues. Four 19th-century efforts were superseded by Georg Kinsky and Hans Halm's Das Werk Beethovens: Thematisch-Bibliographisches Verzeichnis in 1955, which is the standard. Kinsky and Halm included a special category, WoO, which stands for Werk ohne Opuszahl, or "work without opus number." Willy Hess published another catalogue in 1957 that catalogues Beethoven's unfinished works and sketches.

10. Dozens of Beethoven's conversation books survive from 1818 until 1827. They reflect thoughts communicated to the deaf composer by his friends, family, and associates, but not his own comments since he usually responded verbally. Consequently, these books, while a valuable biographical source, require the reader to reconstruct Beethoven's half of the conversation. They are filled with details about everyday life, from gossip to family matters to medical maladies to weather. Comparatively few of the entries pertain to Beethoven's music.

11. The familiar images of Beethoven show a craggy-faced man with wild, longish gray hair. All surviving portraits depict him as clean-shaven. During his last decade, however, he frequently allowed his beard to grow long, adding to his bizarre appearance. In these later years, most Viennese assumed that the famous composer, noted for his eccentricity, was more than a bit insane.

12. In addition to deafness, Beethoven suffered from lifelong bouts of intestinal disorders, beginning in his teens. Modern physicians who have analyzed reports of his stomach complaints and contemporary diagnoses believe that he may have suffered from Crohn's disease, a chronic, recurrent inflammatory enteritis. His final illness was cirrhosis of the liver. At the time, his death was attributed to abdominal dropsy (the modern term is ascites, an accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity of the abdomen). A recent theory put forward this past summer asserts that he may have been inadvertently poisoned by lead by his final physician, exacerbating his liver condition.

[Mark]

Another fact I recently discovered about Beethoven: his family were of Dutch origin, and their surname 'Beethoven' simpy means 'Beet garden'.