Whose Beethoven is best?
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- Опубліковано 13 кві 2022
- Today we are talking about interpretation, specifically the opening of one of the most famous pieces of music of all time: Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Then we will listen and rank ten world class conductors who preformed this opening. Who did it best?
Time Stamps:
Part I: Interpretation: 0:26
Part II: Conductors: 2:32
- Iván Fischer: 3:25
- John Elliot Gardiner: 4:01
- Daniel Barenboim: 4:45
- Yannick Nézet-Séguin: 5:41
- Simon Rattle: 6:38
- Arturo Toscanini: 7:30
- Herbert von Karajan: 8:14
- Carlos Kleiber: 9:17
- Richard Strauss: 10:02
- Leonard Bernstein: 10:56
www.danielkrenzmusic.com
Surprised George Szell and Cleveland wasn’t mentioned. His complete B symphonies are always rated high. Same with Gunther Wand.
To me the weight of this symphony is the 3rd and 4th movements, which are thematically connected , though the opening 1st movement motif permeates the entire symphony. To me the first movement is more of an introduction, the meat being the final movement.
Again, interesting comparison. I'd say that there are a few different trends at work here. One, the age. Richard Strauss conducted in a 19th century style that you hear in other pre-WW2 recordings as well. It is difficult to listen to such recordings and appreciate them on their own merits, using aesthetic criteria that are age-relevant. Same applies to Toscanini. Second, the old-fashioned, heavy, romantic interpretations that were common to the early post-WW2 decades. Karajan, Bernstein, Kleiber, Barenboim. Even though I've grown up in the 70s I now find a them a bit bland... but listen to an earlier Karajan recording; it might surprise you with energy, conviction and very tight orchestral playing. Third, late-20th century conductors, in the examples you played I seem to like the Fischer more. Fourth, interpretations inspired by period appropriate dynamics (and sometimes instrumentation). This is a personal thing, I dislike both the JEG and the NS openings, hurried, jagged, unbalanced, meagre sound. Finally, some of the live performances are marred by sloppy orchestral playing. In the end... Toscanini surprised me, and Fischer seems a good contemporary interpretation.
I thought this was an interesting experiment like you mentioned, because of how the interpretations over the years changed. There is a great book about Strauss called "Richard Strauss: A Musical Life" by Raymond Holden that I would recommend. It talks about Strauss as a composer, but mainly focuses on his work as a conductor. If I remember correctly Holden makes several graphs of tracking the tempos and speeds that Strauss took different sections of different pieces over the years. Really fascinating stuff!
nice video Daniel- I did a quick ranking with you and was surprised by what I came up with. I think to me it’s all about clarity of vision, and how it leads into the exposition. My ranking was such-
Toscanini (surprising!)
Gardner
Karajan
Bernstein
Rattle
Kleiber
Strauss
Fischer
Nézet-Séguin
Barenboim
have you listened to Manfred Honeck’s recording w the Pittsburgh Symphony? I think that is a pretty great recording.
Interesting! Especially cause we almost seemed flipped on a bunch of these. Would you say that Toscanini performed it exactly the way you like it? Or was he still off too?
I will have to check it out. I haven’t heard a lot of recordings by Honeck, but I LOVE watching him conduct.
Considering Simon Rattle is my favorite living conductor, I was happy to hear him nail it, and I see you agreed.
My biggest question is how much to blame the orchestral sloppiness on the conductor. In any given performance, it could be a result of unclear conducting, or it could just be an unfamiliar orchestra vs. an orchestra used to working with the conductor.
True, and I’m sure that it varies widely depending on the situation. But the final product is the final product and the conductor is responsible for that.
Just discovered this video and really enjoyed it. As someone with no training in music but love listening, I really appreciated being able to see the different performances next to each other and hearing the differences between each.
Have you heard Osmo Vanska conducting this? His recording of the symphony with the Minnesota Orchestra is the version of the symphony I'm most familiar with and I'm a fan of it.
I don't believe that I have heard it. But I will go search it out now!
I wish you would have reviewed Claudio Abbado. I just listened to him discuss Beethoven and have listened to the 7th so far.
I don't feel bad for Bernstein. He was the only music teacher that didn't shame me and he instilled a love of classical music even though I joked that I was born with two left ears. But Lenny put out a video toking with Max Schell and he put down Beethoven as mediocre. That was maybe at the time where he hadn't been laid in a while, but I was shocked. And there was another conductor that put out a video absolutely blasting Lenny for those words. So, yeah, Lenny doesn't deserve any respect on the list.
Abbado has been increasingly one of my favorite conductors. I love his repertoire and interpretations. No fussiness.