# How Allegro is Beethoven's Allegro ma non troppo



## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

The first recording I bought of Beethoven's violin concerto (about 50 years ago) was that by Heifetz. As a young lad it cost me a bomb as it was full price and in mono. Putting it on I was initially shocked by the speed at which Heifetz took the first movement. I had always been used to hearing much slower, more 'reverent' performances. However, if one looks at Beethoven's marking of Allegro ma non troppo - ie fast but not too fast - this makes Heifetz's tempo about right. Many people, of course, used to the slower approach which was considered 'reverent' years ago, said Heifetz was superficial, playing it at that speed, but in recent years many more violinists have tended to adopt the faster speed which is presumably what Beethoven intended. Certainly performances by Kremer and Faust tend to adopt brisker tempi for the first movement. 
I must say as I got used to Heifetz's approach (and marvelled at the subtleties of shading he brought to the piece) I couldn't live with violinists who treated the movement more as an Andante. I bought the version by Josef Suk but just couldn't 'get' his leaden first movement tempo. A more recent slow coach was Vengerov with Rostropovich. Impossible (for me at least) at that tempo. Nothing like 'fast but not too fast'.
Anyone else any comments on this?


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