Comments on: Beethoven's Seventh Symphony

Beethoven's Seventh Symphony

Rustic Etruscan — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 15:52:22 -0800

Carlos Kleiber conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Second movement. Third movement. Fourth movement. Christopher H. Gibbs of the Philadelphia Orchestra writes about the piece for NPR. Classical Notes discusses the piece in detail.

Other performances:

On YouTube:
Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Second movement. Third movement. Fourth movement. Christian Thielemann conducts the Vienna Philharmonic. Second movement. Third movement. Fourth movement.
On Spotify:
Carlos Kleiber conducts the Vienna Philharmonic. First movement. Second movement. Third movement. Fourth movement. Frans Brüggen conducts the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. First movement. Second movement. Third movement. Fourth movement. John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. First movement. Second movement. Third movement. Fourth movement.

By: persona au gratin

persona au gratin — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 16:04:37 -0800

Nice! This is my fav Beethoven symphony. Looking forward to digging into the post!

By: persona au gratin

persona au gratin — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 16:05:33 -0800

Curiousity: can you link to Apple Music as you did Spotify?

By: acrasis

acrasis — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 16:07:05 -0800

My favorite version is Guido Cantelli's.

By: acrasis

acrasis — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 16:17:45 -0800

I've always found the 3rd movement problematic. Some conductors make it too bumptious; others too refined. I've never heard a completely convincing interpretation (except perhaps Wilhelm Furtwangler's?). Please offer suggestions, because I can never have too many performances of the 7th.

By: Rustic Etruscan

Rustic Etruscan — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 16:22:14 -0800

Curiousity: can you link to Apple Music as you did Spotify? Unfortunately, I don't know. I don't mean to shill for Spotify. It's just that Spotify is the streaming service I use. If anyone else has links to good recordings on other streaming services, feel free to post them!

By: persona au gratin

persona au gratin — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 16:38:28 -0800

You can link to Apple Music! And I knew you weren't a Spotify shill. ;)

By: mountmccabe

mountmccabe — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 18:13:14 -0800

acrasis: I've always found the 3rd movement problematic. Some conductors make it too bumptious; others too refined. I've never heard a completely convincing interpretation (except perhaps Wilhelm Furtwangler's?). Please offer suggestions, because I can never have too many performances of the 7th. I know it sounds counter-intuitive but since you're looking for something more balanced, I would suggest trying/revisiting Toscanini here. He takes it quickly with little fuss. I would certainly recommend the 1935 New York Philharmonic recording (in my top 5 for this symphony) but the 50s NBC Symphony version is quite fine, too. Though perhaps closer to home, if you're referring to a later Furtwangler recording the 1943 with the BPO that is the one to go for, especially considering what you're looking for. Much more fire and less grandeur than the others.

By: mountmccabe

mountmccabe — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 18:44:56 -0800

Beethoven's 7th symphony is the piece that got me hooked on classical music. It was, specifically, the Allegretto in the 1975 VPO Kleiber recording (the second Kleiber linked in the OP). The layers and levels and architecture of it was blew my young mind. It remains the symphony I have heard the most recordings of, by far. I might have even made Spotify a playlist of 80 versions that I am slowly listening through. My favorites are the aforementioned Kleiber, the 1943 BPO Furtwangler, and the 1936 NYPO Toscanini (I misremembered the year for my previous comment). But another performance I wouldn't want to be without is the 1990 BSO Bernstein. It was recorded live at Tanglewood just a month before he passed. It's a little slower and more sloppy than his earlier (fine) recordings with NYPO and VPO, but what he does with the repeats in the Allegro con brio is amazing. I believe he takes them all, generally slowly noticeably for the start of the section and then accelerating on the repeat. They were put in service of the forward motion of the movement.

By: Lutoslawski

Lutoslawski — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 18:51:35 -0800

For most of my life Beethoven's 7th was my favorite Beethoven symphony. Now my favorite is the 8th, but the 7th will always have a special place in my heart. I'm loving these posts, btw. Keep it up!

By: town of cats

town of cats — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 19:50:21 -0800

I think the 1943 Furtwangler 7th is my favorite recorded piece of music in all of history, ever. Either that or Trout Mask Replica, anyway. The second movement in particular... honestly, I kinda feel like if you don't think the second movement of Beethoven's 7th is the most affecting piece of music of all time it may be because you've never heard it? Or you've heard a performance that doesn't give it the elegiac weight of Furtwangler's. I look forward to checking out these other performances though. Maybe I will find a new favorite. Thanks!

By: popechunk

popechunk — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 21:30:38 -0800

> But another performance I wouldn't want to be without is the 1990 BSO Bernstein. It was recorded live at Tanglewood just a month before he passed. This adds absolutely nothing to this conversation, but I was at that performance. I couldn't pass up the chance to brag about that again. The 7th was my first favorite symphony. I've always loved it. Spotify users: what is the best way to explore classical music in Spotify? Are there any tips or tricks?

By: mountmccabe

mountmccabe — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 22:58:15 -0800

This adds absolutely nothing to this conversation, but I was at that performance. Whoah. Spotify users: what is the best way to explore classical music in Spotify? Are there any tips or tricks? A decent place to start is Ulysses' Classical. This person used to run a blog, Spotify Classical, on their own but then (now?) worked (still?) for Spotify in some fashion. The blog had some nice tips, though with some of the improvements to how Spotify deals with classical music (in part put through by Ulysses) they are not all necessary. But that user (and that blog) has many fantastic playlists. They used to host a yearly collaborative New Classical Releases Index; the 2014 edition had 1670 tracks, each from different 2014 releases added by near 100 different users. My other tip is to follow people who listen to classical music, look at their playlists. There are many different approaches to cataloging the music that is out there; I'm sure you can find ways you like.

By: mountmccabe

mountmccabe — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 23:11:57 -0800

Also: I watched the Thielemann and the Kleiber tonight. I enjoyed both but oh, wow, I love how much more expressive Kleiber is, both in his conducting and in his approach to the music. There's so much more life to the symphony with that fluid approach. And though he takes the Allegretto quicker than Thielemann he gets just as much out of it. In some of the earlier threads people have talked about not being sure what a conductor is doing up there, but I would heartily recommend watching the Carlos Kleiber here. He is very expressive, almost dancing up there. He has very clear cues for the orchestra as well, both to certain sections and soloists but also for overall dynamics. It is possible this is just me; I am very much on board with his view of the architecture of this symphony. And of course a lot of what a conductor does is in rehearsals, but I find Kleiber on stage very easy to match to the music. He seems very responsive to the music, despite it being much more the other way around. The connection seems most evident in the outer movements.

By: Fiorentina97

Fiorentina97 — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 05:02:17 -0800

One of my favorites, second only to Prokofiev's Fifth! When I played this back in the day with my youth orchestra in high school, I distinctly remember our conductor telling us to think of the second movement as a person, starting with the skeleton, being built layer upon layer until it was a complete human. Being the horror film fan I am, my mind immediately went to Frank's resurrection scene from Hellraiser. Ever since, I can't hear the second movement without, at least briefly, having a mental flash of Frank returning from Hell. This is a great post, and I can't wait to listen to the list of recommended recordings to compare - thanks for sharing!

By: kurumi

kurumi — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 08:19:04 -0800

As a "chord geek", I love the clever-but-not-ostentatious motion in the Allegretto. Reminds me a little of M. R. James fiction -- sort of modern/progressive couched in the traditional/antiquarian. Compare that to, say, Vivaldi, where for me that bit of interest just isn't there. (Perhaps that's one of the many reasons I'm not a music critic.)

By: persona au gratin

persona au gratin — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 12:17:31 -0800

town of cats: just put on the 1943 Furtwangler. Thanks!

By: Namlit

Namlit — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 00:02:44 -0800

This adds absolutely nothing to this conversation, but I was at that performance. Heh, I missed that by two inches for the Kleiber and the Brüggen here above. The Brüggen performance I heard in Amsterdam, a few days later or earlier than his recording was made (live, in Utrecht). And Kleiber. The tickets for that particular concert sold out instantly, no way even to get last-minute tickets. We had a beer instead.

By: How the runs scored

How the runs scored — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 00:57:44 -0800

The second movement was used to good effect in the climatic scene from The King's Speech. No coincidence that Geoffrey Rush is effectively "conducting" Colin Firth as he delivers it.

By: zooropa

zooropa — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 19:44:19 -0800

The second movement was used to good effect in the climatic scene from The King's Speech.

This is such a powerful piece of cinema, and a good portion of that is the Beethoven. It's almost Shakespearean in drama and scope. Seriously, if you're not ready for a call to arms and to follow the king into battle by the end of that scene, I don't know what will.