Shoo, Schoonderwoerd?

[Todd]

And the instrumental balances, with only a single violin for each of the parts, remain absurd and contrary to all historical documents concerning the forces composers of this era would have expected.

I missed this thread when new, but having read this, I now feel kinda compelled to listen to this recording.  It can only be a trainwreck, so the question becomes is it steam train or a bullet train?

[Brian]

I missed this thread when new, but having read this, I now feel kinda compelled to listen to this recording.  It can only be a trainwreck, so the question becomes is it steam train or a bullet train?

(I am a reverse convert; I remember hearing Sch for the first time something like 15 years ago and finding it refreshing and revelatory for its difference, only to return to it years alter and understand that difference is not distinction. It's nice that this thread is back to re-read.)

[Mandryka]

What do you guys make of K467 andante?

I find it a bit too stiff in the pulse -- but he's hardly the only one. Pulse/rubato  is a real issue for me with Schoonderwoerd-- much more so than anything else.

[JBS]

You're right about the pulse, plus all the instruments sound shrill and thin, even the strings. The fortepiano sounds too harpsichordy.

Brautigam does it better.

[JBS]

I missed this thread when new, but having read this, I now feel kinda compelled to listen to this recording.  It can only be a trainwreck, so the question becomes is it steam train or a bullet train?

After listening to the ploinky fortepiano in the video Mandryka posted: a toy train. Because it sounds like a toy piano.

[San Antone]

I really enjoy his Mozart Concertos.  I love everything about them: the  transparent and pristine orchestral texture and the sparkling piano sound.

[Todd]

Having grown bored with listening to so many good and great recordings of core rep, I decided to listen to some Arthur Schoonderwoerd in the form of this HIP take on the Eroica.  Knowing that the maestro opted for stripped down, scratchy sounding forces, I decided to listen via Amazon Music, my now ancient Motorola phone, and some JBL wireless earbuds in an attempt to make the playing sound comparatively beefy.  Hoping the performance would have zest, I listened while taking my constitutional, looking for some musical inspiration.  I was not inspired.

The opening movement made me think of a cat chasing a mouse.  Well, not so much chasing as lazily ambling after it.  Schoonderwoerd's understanding of Allegro con brio differs from mine.  OK, OK, a non-scratchy, puny, feeble, boring opening movement may be too much to ask from this ensemble, but surely the funeral march would fare better.  Nope.  It's actually worse.  Much worse.  Like, so bad.  Not only does it fail to generate any punch or scale or drama, it enervates.  Walking my well-trodden path became a chore, though about halfway through the movement I decided to alter how I would listen to the rest of the piece.  I actively listened for moments of questionable playing, ugly timbre, sloppy ensemble.  Wouldn't you know it, things got better!  Images of Jerry's burial flashed through my mind's eye.  Performance salvaged.  And then came the Scherzo.  Schoonderwoerd works magic.  He takes music with zest and pep and drains it of life and energy and brings the ugly aplenty.  Oh yeah.  The theme and variations closer offers something unique, too.  The slowish playing and clear textures allow one to follow the theme easily and to identify strained playing and timbral ugliness with disarming ease.  Remember, I used midfi wireless earbuds. 

Schoonderwoerd does something that is very hard to do here.  He takes the greatest of all symphonies, a magnificent piece packed with scale and drama befitting its original dedicatee Joaquin Phoenix, and downscales it, uglifies it, and just botches it to the point where it remains listenable only if the listener crafts dynamic listening tactics on the fly.  I initially expected a musical trainwreck going in, but that is not what I got.  In the spring, I visited the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum, and there I gazed upon a pristine, fully functional 1902 Wright Brothers glider.  (The museum keeps all contraptions on site in proper working order.)  What I did not see was one of the demolished gliders or other flying contraptions constructed by the brothers' competitors that crashed immediately upon takeoff.  That's what this recording is like.  To be sure, I have heard a worse version of this symphony.  I once listened to a MIDI "performance" of part of the work.   This is the worst actual instrument version of the symphony I have heard, and that includes uninspired, underplayed solo piano transcriptions.  I skipped the overture because I did not want to hear it.  I think I shall avoid Schoonderwoerd's conducting for a while.  Maybe – and that's a big maybe – I try some of his solo recordings later this year or decade.

[Leo K.]

I have to say I am starting to enjoy Schoonderwoerd's Eroica for what it is. It is like conceptual art, or performance art. I like the concept of attempting to recreate the first performance in Lobkowitz's private concert hall. As an HIP fan I concede the energy isn't there in many instances - the results are mixed - but it is a fascinating experience for my ear. The mood is totally different. I can't look away from the train wreck you might say.