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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Born in Bonn, Beethoven moved to Viennna when
in his twenties to study under Haydn. Vienna was was the centre of
musical life in Europe at the time and Beethoven quickly established
his
reputation as a brilliant pianist. Teaching and composing augmented his
income.
Beethoven's compositions between 1800 and 1802 were dominated by two
works, although he continued to produce smaller works, including the Moonlight
Sonata. In the spring of 1801 he completed The Creatures of
Prometheus, a ballet. The work was such a success that it received
numerous performances in 1801 and 1802, and Beethoven rushed to publish
a piano arrangement to capitalize on its early popularity. In the
spring of 1802 he completed the Second Symphony, intended for
performance at a concert that was eventually cancelled.
By this time he was suffering from a severe form of tinnitus, a ringing
in his ears that made it hard for him to perceive and appreciate music;
he also avoided conversation. Beethoven wrote to friends in 1801
describing his symptoms and the difficulties they caused in both
professional and social settings.
On the advice of his doctor, lived in the small Austrian town of
Heiligenstadt, just outside Vienna, from April to October 1802 in an
attempt to come to terms with his condition. There he wrote his
Heiligenstadt Testament, which records his resolution to continue
living for and through his art.
Over time, his hearing loss became profound: there is a well-attested
story that, at the end of the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to
be turned around to see the tumultuous applause of the audience;
hearing nothing, he wept. Beethoven's hearing loss did not prevent his
composing music, but it made playing at concerts—a lucrative source of
income—increasingly difficult. After a failed attempt in 1811 to
perform his own Piano Concerto No. 5 (the "Emperor"), he never
performed in public again.
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"I am perfectly sure that I like this new
performance of the Concerto the best of all. Geza Anda is of the Serkin
school of thought in that he also takes the first movement briskly
(with a two-in-a-bar feeling), but he is more careful in his precise
choice of speed and the result is altogether better judged. The playing
is wonderfully clean, full of attractive touches, and glitters as it
should. Galliera and the Philharmonia are in equally good form. I was
just a little disappointed in the Finale, which is not as exuberant as
it seems to me it should be. But this is only a slight reservation in
otherwise whole-hearted approval. The recording is good, though oboes
here and there sound rather ungrateful." Gramophone November 1955
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1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement
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1st movemnent Alegro moderato wirth candenza by
Saint Seans
2nd movement Andante con molto and 3rd movement Rondo
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"Rarely, rarely as comes the spirit of
delight, there is the infrequent occasion which makes the reviewer's
life really worth while : such an occasion is the issue of this
recording. I cannot remember a finer or more deeply satisfying
performance of this great concerto, one which more effortlessly
overcomes every obstacle and in which every detail is so meticulously
polished and so absolutely right. The recipe is simple enough : take a
soloist and a conductor who, besides being personalities as well as
great artists, are entirely en rapport, add a first-rate orchestra of
alert musicians, give them all enough time to rehearse thoroughly,
finish off with a recording engineer who secures the right balance
between piano and orchestra, and who captures the lustre of the
orchestral playing —and you get a masterpiece, like this.
Throughout these discs there is this feeling that two personalities are
pulling together, each inspiring the other. The orchestral playing is
never allowed to become just an accompaniment, but is full of life
(notice, as one instance only, the basses in bars 55-58). Phrasing is
beautifully modelled, the rhythm is admirably taut (listen to the
second subject of the first movement), and the perfectly-controlled
string dynamics at the end of the Andante are most moving. Rubinstein's
cadenzas, which are new to me, are entirely acceptable in style, though
that in the first movement is over-long.
So far as I am concerned, nobody need bother to record this concerto
again : this performance is it ! " Lionel Salter reviewing the
original release in Gramophone October 1949
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1st movement Allegro
2nd movement Adagio and 3rd movement Rondo
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1st movement
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"The recording itself is admirable and the
playing of first-rate quality." Gramophone October 1937
There is a cut in the reprise of the first part of the Scherzo and the
omission of the conventional repeats in the first and last movements.
This was standard practice at the time the recording was made.
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1st movement
2nd movement
3rd and 4th movements
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2nd movement
3rd movement
4th movement
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"The Viennese style--more caressing than the
Teutonic--is admirably suited to the first of the Beethoven symphonies,
handled gently and easily by Schuricht. The orchestra's playing is
virtually impeccable, as one would expect." Gramophone September
1952
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1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement
4th movement
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"One of the Berlin Philharmonic's assets is
the woodwinds' capacity for scaling-down, for modulating their
tone-qualities so that they are part of the orchestra rather than an
assertive contrast to the strings. It is wellexemplified in this
recording of Beethoven's Second Symphony, particularly in the
Larghetto. Similarly their brass is integrated into the tuttis which
consequently escape domination by trumpets and drums." Gramophone
August 1972
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1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement
4th movement
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1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement
4th movement
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2nd movement
3rd movement
4th movement
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" This is a performance of the utmost
distinction from a great Beethoven conductor in charge of a great
orchestra. " Gramophone May 1959
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1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement
4th movement
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1st movement
2nd movement
3rd and 4th movements
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"...imbued with a kind of strength and vitality
that is richly satisfying, and the 1958 recording is first-class." Alan
Sanders in Classical
Recordings Quarterly Autum 2011
" Here is indeed a strong performance and this is one of the best
things I have ever heard this conductor do. It seeks to make no
effects, but by very virtue of its honest strength ends by making a
great impression. " Gramophone March 1959
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1st movement
2nd movement
3rd, 4th and 5th movements
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"An exceptionally good and clear recording
allows this most beautiful performance of the Pastoral to be heard at
its best. Throughout the Berlin players are on top of their form, with
soloist after soloist turning his phrases with the utmost happiness,
and allowed too by good recording balance to be a clearly audible
soloist without struggle ; only the flute, sometimes, might perhaps
have stood out rather more readily from his background.
Cluytens gives an easy-going reading of the work, refusing either to
hurry the first movement or to be unduly delayed by the second. The
third is particularly happy: not •nly is the very desirable repeat
made, but the energetic 2/4 section has an impulse only rarely allowed
it in sedate performance—towards the end the rustic dancing might
readily be believed to be getting out of hand until the trumpet-call
announces a return to sobriety. The storm, too, lacks nothing in
terror, and subsides to a flowing and beautifully controlled finale."M.M.
reviewing in The Gramophone Nov. 1957
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2nd movement
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"The pp sotto voce final pages are beautifully
done, and the muted horn calls a benediction on our country holiday.
Just back from my own, I find the music moving, and the records happy
in unified style, without any feeling of showing off. I can remember
more "brilliant" readings and playings. Someone might even think this a
bit dull--but only, I believe, if he were more concerned about manner
than matter. To be able to call a result musicianly is my ideal." Gramophone
October 1948
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