202. Fernando Sor - Guitar Works (1810-30s)

Recording

Title: Guitar Music
Performer: Adam Holzman
Year: 1995
Length: 1 hour 41 minutes

Review

The classical guitar is the Spanish musical instrument par excellence, in fact it takes about 3 seconds to figure out the nationality of this composer, as soon as you put the CD on. The best thing about this collection is how original the sound of the guitar is, when you are used to Beethoven or what came before.

Unfortunately there are bad points to this as well. Sor sounds like a very conservative composer, most of the music seems to belong to an earlier age, more influenced by Mozart and Haydn than what else was happening in the world. So, it is not very exciting compositionally.

On the other hand, the music is very catchy... which is not necessarily a great thing, there is always the problem with classical guitar music that it might sound a bit kitsch, and unfortunately that happens often here... so not my favourite thing, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In Spain he is sometimes known as the "Beethoven of the Guitar".

Have they ever heard Beethoven in Spain?

Well that's interesting:

201. Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto no. 5 in E flat major (1809)

Recording

Title: The 5 Piano Concertos
Performers: Alfred Brendel, Vienna Philharmonic
Director: Simon Rattle
Year: 1998
Length: 40 minutes

Review

I have had this collection of the 5 Beethoven piano concertos for a long time, about 9 years now. It is my favourite collection of the Beethoven concertos, if you can get it, do. An added bonus from this edition is the booklet which makes Brendel and Rattle look like a very strange gay couple in almost all pictures of them.

That being said this is definitely my favourite Beethoven piano concerto, it is a masterpiece and unfortunately the last one he would ever produce. He was by this time completely deaf and did not even play on the opening night.

The first movement is grandiose in all the possible senses of the word, it's long, majestic and beautiful, with constant changes of pace and ambience which make it constantly exciting to listen to during its 20 minutes. The second movement is a piece of sublime meditative beauty almost prefiguring Mahler's adagios and it immediately jumps in to the third movement with one of the greatest transitions in musical history. The third movement returns to the feel of the first powerful and joyous, if less martial. Amazing.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Popularly known as the "Emperor Concerto", [it] was his last piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil. The first performance took place on November 28, 1811, at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In 1812, Carl Czerny, his student, gave the Vienna debut of this work.

This concerto is very well known, and rather popular. In October 2007, it was voted listeners' favourite in the ABC Classic FM Classic 100 Concerto poll.

Claudio Arrau Part 1, look for other parts on Youtube:

200. Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony no. 6, "Pastoral" (1808)

Recording

Title: Decca Recordings 1949-1955
Performers: Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra
Director: Erich Kleiber
Year: 1953
Length: 41 minutes

Review

Of all Beethoven Symphonies if you had to file one under easy-listening this would be the one. It is remarkably cheery and positive in outlook, not nearly as challenging as the fifth and in fact it seems sometimes to look back at Classical composition for its bucolic feel.

It is also, however, a very brilliant piece. Musicians have been trying to mimic nature since the beginning of time, two notable antecedents to the Pastoral Symphony would be Vivaldi's four seasons and Haydn's oratorio The Seasons. None of them is as successful as Beethoven in evoking the emotions associated with the experience of the natural world.

In this last sense the work is almost impressionistic, it is not painting a scenery as much as making you feel the scenery. Therefore, in spite of the superficially non-challenging nature of the piece, it is still a work of refreshing originality. No composer before Beethoven was as attuned to human emotion as he is and that permits him to makes this work a really successful effort.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The first sketches of this symphony appeared in 1802. The symphony has a plot, storyline, and programmatic titles; Beethoven remarked, "It is left to the listener to find out the situations ... Anyone that has formed any ideal of rural life does not need titles to imagine the composer’s intentions."

Karajan:

199. Ludwig Van Beethoven - Piano Trio in D major, op. 70, no. 1, "Ghost" (1808)

Recording

Title: Complete Music for Piano Trio 1
Performers: Florestan Trio
Year: 2001
Length: 26 minutes

Review

This particular piano trio by Beethoven is particularly worth it for a great second, slow and haunting, movement. The first and last movement are, of course, pretty great but this is Beethoven we are talking about, so the standards are different.

The piano trio is a new thing on this list, it involves a piano, of course and, in this case, a cello and a violin. It seems very evident throughout, however, that the cello is playing a pretty much secondary part to the other two instruments.

As I said above the real highlight is the second movement here, the one that gives the Trio its ghostly name, it almost reminds me of Chopin in its romantically painful sound, particularly, of course, when it comes to the piano part. I still prefer Beethoven when he is going all out in his orchestral pieces but this second movement is something special. The rest of the piece does pale in comparison however which is a pity.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

These pieces are representative of Beethoven's "Middle" stylistic period, which went from roughly 1803 to 1812, and which included many of his most famous works. Beethoven wrote the two piano trios while spending the summer of 1808 in Heiligenstadt, Vienna, where he had completed his Symphony No. 5 the previous summer. He wrote the two trios immediately after finishing his Sinfonia pastorale, Symphony No. 6. This was a period of uncertainty in Beethoven's life, in particular because he had no dependable source of income at the time.

Barenboim, Du Pre and Zuckerman play the second movement:

Part 1:



Part 2:

198. Ludwig Van Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 (1807)

Recording

Title: Symphonien Nos. 6 & 7
Performers: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Director: Carlos Kleiber
Year: 1974
Length: 33 minutes


Review

In an alternate universe, where Symphonies are Mexican wrestlers, Beethoven's fifth and the ninth have the brightest masks and keep fighting it out for the title. It is hard to say which one is the best, it is almost impossible to say which one is coming more out of left-field, which is more original, but one thing we know... they are amazing.

The fifth starts with what is probably the most famous piece of classical music in the history of classical music... Ta-ta-ta-taaaa. See, you know it. If anything its fame takes away from the impact, which must have been nothing less than colossal.

If that was the only thing about the symphony it would still be one of the most easily recognisable pieces of music, but then that is not even my favourite movement. The slow movement is a thing of beauty, the first Allegro is bright and amazing but Beethoven has a talent of leaving the best bit to the end, and here the last movement is an allegro of unprecedented triumph and colour. It sounds astoundingly modern and exciting for every minute of it. An indispensable piece of music for anyone, and this recording is particularly good as it also contains a very recommendable version of the seventh... which I will review here later on.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

There was little critical response to the premiere performance, which took place under adverse conditions. The orchestra did not play well—with only one rehearsal before the concert—and at one point, following a mistake by one of the performers in the Choral Fantasy, Beethoven had to stop the music and start again.[6] The auditorium was extremely cold and the audience was exhausted by the length of the program. However, a year and a half later, another performance resulted in a rapturous review by E.T.A. Hoffmann in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. He described the music with dramatic imagery:

Radiant beams shoot through the deep night of this region, and we become aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking back and forth, close in on us and destroy all within us except the pain of endless longing—a longing in which every pleasure that rose up amid jubilant tones sinks and succumbs. Only through this pain, which, while consuming but not destroying love, hope, and joy, tries to burst our breasts with a full-voiced general cry from all the passions, do we live on and are captivated beholders of the spirits.

Karajan, full symphony:

Part 1:



Part 2:

197. Ludwig van Beethoven - Violin Concerto (1806)

Recording

Title: Violin Concerto
Performers: Itzhak Perlman, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Director: Daniel Barenboim
Year: 1986
Length: 44 minutes

Review

Although not very popular in its day, Beethoven's Violin Concerto has now become a staple violin work, particularly the impressive third movement. This movement is much more famous than the other two, but that is not to say that they are not equally impressive.

The sheer length of the first movement makes it a piece of endurance for any violin player, not only for the solo work but because of the continued and complex relationship with the orchestra.

Ignoring the technical difficulties of the performance it is a truly impressive piece at the pure level of musical enjoyment. The immense first movement is never dull, the second movement creates a beautiful bridge that meshes seamlessly with the joyous finale. Highly recommended indeed.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It is believed that Beethoven finished the solo part so late that Clement had to sight-read part of his performance. Perhaps to express his annoyance, or to show what he could do when he had time to prepare, Clement interrupted the concerto between the first and second movements with a solo composition of his own, played on one string of the violin held upside down.

The premiere was not a success, and the concerto was little performed in the following decades.

Third movement from this recording, live:

196. Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 4 (1806)

Recordings

Title: Complete Symphonies
Performers: Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Director: Frans Bruggen
Year: 1990
Length: 32 minutes

Review

This is what Beethoven is really revolutionary at doing: orchestral works. Whether they are concertos or symphonies they are always, without an exception a joy to listen to. The fourth symphony even if it is sandwiched between two greater symphonies is no exception.

The piece starts with a mournful and slightly creepy adagio, only to explode in glorious joy. The slow movement is a great piece of romantic music and the last two, shorter movements return us to a bit of happiness.

In the general context of Beethoven's symphonies this is not one of the most amazing, it is probably just outside the top 5, but because they are all so completely amazing and as near to perfection as you can get it is still a pretty nifty piece of music.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Although all nine of Beethoven's symphonies are widely performed, the Fourth is less often performed than some of the others. Robert Schumann described Symphony No. 4 as a "slender Greek maiden between two Norse gods", referring to the 3rd and 5th Symphonies, both with towering reputations.

The whole thing with Karajan: