Funny that you two bring up Beethoven: over the past month I've been listening to various complete recordings of the symphonies. (Specifically, I've been comparing versions by Arturo Toscanini, John Eliot Gardiner, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Colin Davis, and Herbert von Karajan.) I'm still assessing them, but I'll throw out some thoughts now:
LF, I have not heard Ferenc Fricsay's Beethoven, but your comment that it shows more
humanity than Karajan's is interesting. Karajan was my introduction to Beethoven's symphonies, so he naturally set the standard for me, and a formidable standard it was. The incredibly polished sound that the Berliners under Karajan achieved was and remains something unique in music that still floors me every time I hear it. Karajan wasn't a conductor, but a sorcerer. But there's the rub, right? Karajan's seamless, perfect sound can end up sounding
too seamless,
too perfect.
After hearing other Beethoven interpretations over the years, I came to recognize that Karajan's was not the last word in Beethoven. Karajan's recordings of the Symphonies will always command my admiration, but I don't quite love them the way I used to. I've also become a bit annoyed by Karajan's tendency to ignore the repeats in Beethoven's score. (You know, when the orchestra plays the opening theme or musical idea - the exposition - and then immediately plays it again. I realize now that those repeats aren't at all superfluous, but rather, add tremendous breadth and weight to the music.) That said, I would still recommend his Beethoven cycles to anyone. They are just too good to ignore. The First Symphony in Karajan's hands possesses a charm and poise that I still don't hear from other conductors; at the opposite end, Karajan still conveys the majesty of the Ninth Symphony's opening movement better than anyone else, in my opinion.
However, in terms of the most
human (or humane?) view of Beethoven, I think I would go with Leonard Bernstein's cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic from the 70's (again, without having heard Fricsay's interpretations). I'm glad I finally got around to hearing this Bernstein-Vienna set: there is a lot of joy in the music-making here, and the recorded sound is fabulous. The only time I really disagree with Bernstein's interpretation is in the Fifth Symphony: the opening movement is just...too...slooow. All drama fizzles out of that great movement when you adopt a slow tempo. I'm sorry, but there's just no excuse for that. Aside from that, I love this Beethoven set. Bernstein's reading of the Eroica is as grand and heroic as any I've heard. I'm ready to say that Bernstein's Seventh is even more thrilling than Carlos Kleiber's highly regarded performance with the same orchestra. And the Ninth here is glorious, better than most I've heard.
As for
A Clockwork Orange...I'm just glad I already got to know and love the Ninth long before I watched that film. (Don't get me wrong, I think it's an important movie, but it's just not a movie I can sit and be "comfortable" with, which I know is probably the point of the movie, but that's for another discussion...)
Seareach wrote:Philip Glass. Whoa! Me like!
Me like too! Philip Glass's music is pretty cool, and demonstrates that not
all contemporary classical stuff is freaky, atonal, fingernails-on-chalkboard noise.
