Favorite Beethoven Symphony

[Cato]

I cannot find the timings, but I recall the Toscanini performance of the Beethoven Symphony #7: this YouTube version has a timing of 32:47 total, but that might include the pauses between movements.

http://www.youtube.com/v/T_8OozW3Sso

If the timings on YouTube can be trusted, this performance brings in the Allegretto at 7 minutes flat.

[kyjo]

I like my Allegretto timings to be around 7:30 to 8:30.

[madaboutmahler]

7

If based on just one movement, would obviously have to be the first of 3. But 7 is my overall favourite, and it's so fun to play (we're doing it in youth orchestra at the moment!), 6 would be my next favourite..

[Karl Henning]

I like my Allegretto timings to be around 7:30 to 8:30.

So you have a quarrel with the composer's metronome markings, I reckon? 

[not edward]

So you have a quarrel with the composer's metronome markings, I reckon? 

Something I don't know as well as I should is: how often the is the current performance tradition in accordance with Beethoven's metronome markings?

Obviously there's well-known cases like the first movement of the Eroica where almost nobody conducts it at the marked speed, but I'm not sure how ubiquitous such a thing is.

[kyjo]

So you have a quarrel with the composer's metronome markings, I reckon? 

I suppose! But it doesn't matter to me!

[Karl Henning]

Well, that was breezy . . . a bit unexpectedly, for a performer  0:)

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Pastoral symphony all the way! Yeaaaaaaaahhhh!

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I agree.  The first movement overly played on 'best of' or pops classical stations, while ignoring the astonishing greatness of the other 3 movements.

Double agreed about the greatness of the other 3 movements. My favorite movement in this symphony is the finale: After all this darkness there finally comes the triumph, one of the greatest musical descriptions of triumph of joy over sorrow, perhaps even greater than finale of the 9th symphony. I think maybe only Parsifal's ending, the transformation of grail motive to more hopeful variation can be considered in the same league.

[Jay F]

I missed this the first time around. I'm one of what someone called an "intermediate" Beethoven fan, I suppose, as the 7th is my favorite. The second movement has been a favorite of mine since I heard it in some old Nazi movie I saw on television one Sunday afternoon when I was a little kid. A Jewish family heard it on the radio they weren't supposed to have, and it represented hope.

[TheGSMoeller]

Favorite? The 3rd. No doubt. Even if only for the scherzo.

The best? The 9th. I would have no argument against the 9th. It's popularity is unmatched for a reason, and after performing parts of it and being in the audience as a spectator, I really got a true sense of its power and allure.

Well said, Greg, well said.

[Wanderer]

*bump*

[vandermolen]

Probably answered before. 7 and 3 are my favourites in that order.

[Wanderer]

In order of preference:

"Eroica"
7
5
9
6
1
8
4
2

For a top 3 ranking of preference, I'd go like this:

1: 'Eroica"
2: Nos. 5, 6, 7 & 9
3: Nos. 1, 2, 4 & 8

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

421369875 is my current order of preferences

[SharpEleventh]

421369875 is my current order of preferences

Since no one actually likes 1, 2, 4 or 8 and they barely even exist, I take it that your favorite is the third. Good choice.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Since no one actually likes 1, 2, 4 or 8 and they barely even exist, I take it that your favorite is the third. Good choice.

Sorry, I meant to say my favourite Beethoven symphony is the 421369875th!

[Johnnie Burgess]

#3 with #5 being a close second.

[arpeggio]

I can not tell you my favorite.  It would probably be the whatever.  At one time it was the Fifth.  The I performed the Ninth and for awhile that was my favorite.  Then I performed the Seventh.  This week we just read through the Sixth and now that is my favorite.

I can tell you my least favorite.  It just stands to reason one of his symphonies has to be weaker that the other nine.

For me it would be the Fourth because I can not play that bassoon solo in the last movement!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brian]

I think my order would be 7, 5, 4, 8, 3, 6, 9, 2, 1. At least today.

Now:

7, 5, 8, 3, 4, 9, 6, 2, 1