# SS7 24.08.13 - Beethoven #5



## Bix (Aug 12, 2010)

http://www.talkclassical.com/26593-saturday-symphonies.html

*Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)*

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1804-1808)

1. Allegro con brio
2. Andante con moto
3. Scherzo. Allegro
4. Allegro


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

I hope to have some time for this Saturday Symphony. It is a good one, @Bix.

I will go with the 1973 Karajan with Berlin in DVD.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

I usually like the big orchestra approach, especially with this Symphony, but this week I'm going to go with:

View attachment 23379


Roger Norrington & The Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

First time listener here (I went with Kleiber Jr., trusting the general consensus) - and what can I say? Every every movement, every phrase, every note captivated me. The scherzo - finale switch must be one of the most glorious moments I've heard in all of music. Beethoven achieves in many of his works with ease what every film composer - and, in fact, many a film too - still tries desperately to achieve: a monumental feeling -- if there was ever a piece of music that deserved being called 'epic', it's this one. The glory of Greece and Grandeur of Rome indeed. Its scale is literally godlike - removed from the quibbles of mere mortals.

I think I'll savor it by not listening to it again any time soon. It's probably best to tread delicately on _this_ musical achievement.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

I listened to a rather forgettable recording of this one a few days ago: Boston National Phil., Erich Ridje


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I'm listening to Friedrich Kark and the Odeon Symphony Orchestra.


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

I will pick recent Chailly recording. This symphony is my number one. All movements are great. I might check something from the youtube also. Any recommendations?


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

> I'm listening to Friedrich Kark and the Odeon Symphony Orchestra.


That's one I've never heard of.
I might listen to the David Zinman recording on Arte Nova with the Tonhalle Orchestra. Hopefully I can pull out an ancient vinyl recording too - Kletzki / Sudwestfunk Symphny Orchestra of Badeb Baden. This'll be fun 

UPDATE: I listened to the Zinman recording, apparantly it's the first recording on modern instruments according to New Barenreiter Edition (though this means little if anything to me if I'm honest). It's a swift performance throughout but really nicely played with very prominent horns and woodwind. It's coupled with an equally sprightly 6th.
The Kletzki recording (on vinyl) is a tad slower and has more changes in tempo during the movements especially a marked slow-down in the 1st at a climactic reprise of the da-da-da-daaa motif. The sound of course is nowhere near as good as the much more recent Zinman, but it's a decent recording nonetheless.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Cheyenne said:


> First time listener here (I went with Kleiber Jr., trusting the general consensus) - and what can I say? Every every movement, every phrase, every note captivated me. The scherzo - finale switch must be one of the most glorious moments I've heard in all of music. Beethoven achieves in many of his works with ease what every film composer - and, in fact, many a film too - still tries desperately to achieve: a monumental feeling -- if there was ever a piece of music that deserved being called 'epic', it's this one. The glory of Greece and Grandeur of Rome indeed. Its scale is literally godlike - removed from the quibbles of mere mortals.
> 
> I think I'll savor it by not listening to it again any time soon. It's probably best to tread delicately on _this_ musical achievement.


If you haven't yet, read ETA Hoffmann's assessment, if you can find it.

So, as I stated on two other threads, I listened to Bernstein leading the New York Philharmonic. The reading strives for power and sublimity over clarity, and there are a few voices that get lost, but every sforzando is felt keenly. It falters, if at all, in the more ambivalent mood of the second movement, where one is not sure that the lack of grace is part of the music's intent or not. The scherzo's dark hues are amply contrasted with both the trio's folk-like scraping basses and the finale's radiant bursts of C major.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Well, I listened to 2 different recordings of Beethoven's 5th today.

First up was:









Roger Norrington & The Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart

This is a really interesting take for me and like I mentioned far against my norm for this particular symphony. I really think this version works for me because of the very fast second movement. I read a review were critic Jed Dislter once said, "Once you get used to the Andante con moto played almost twice as fast as "tradition" deems, you notice the folk-like character of its themes as never before." I felt the same way. Truly an interesting take worth exploring if you haven't heard it before.

Having gone more HIP I wanted to hear my big, old band style recording of this symphony, so up next was:
View attachment 23482


Rudolf Kempe & The Munich Philharmonic

This might be might be my personal favorite. I hear so much in this recording that I don't hear in other recordings. In that same 2nd movement where at high speed I heard more folk-like character, I now hear the 6th Symphony on it's way. It's almost like it's foreshadowing what's to come next. This recording to me is big, bold, brilliant and so melodic with it's flow. It reminds so much of Furtwangler, but better in some ways. No one will probably agree with me on that, but the contrast Kempe creates even in the first movement between the slow, long opening bars and then the way it changes tempo and feel and then returns to those slow opening notes, is just a work of art to me. I've never heard another recording of this Symphony with just a perfect flow throughout the whole piece. I don't know how to really explain it better than that, but the melodies just seem to flow naturally into one another. There is never that feeling that I have with some other recordings where the a transition from one melody to another seems more for lack of a better word, harsh. Everything just seems perfectly natural to...to me at least.


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2013)

I was kinda dreading this today...thought I'd heard Beethoven's 5th one too many times...but damn...what a consistently great symphony.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Dorati and the LSO right now! One of the best versions I've ever heard! Love it! Love it! Love it!


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

The way the first movement comes to an end is to me by far one of Beethoven's greatest symphonic moments. Actually, it overshadows the rest of the symphony IMO. Especially the second movement, which feels very generic and earthbound. So yeah, to me this symphony is uneven.
Ah well, probably just me, I have a love/hate relationship with Beethoven's music.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

Those piccolo flings near the end of the last movement always strike me in a weird way. Love 'em.


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