December 16th marks the birthday of Beethoven, my favorite composer. This gives me an excuse to marathon Beethoven works (even more so than usual, that is)
So to procrastinate studying for finals, I threw together a playlist of some of my favorite pieces + awesome recordings of them. These are not necessarily the "best" recordings of the pieces, or even my personal favorites, but they are all very enjoyable, and I tried to not have any repeat performers. The wide range of styles and practices of performing Beethoven is astounding.
Nor is it a complete list of all of Beethoven's works, but merely those that I find myself listening to the most.
Prometheus – Cluytens/BPO Coriolan – Zinman/Tonhalle Zurich Lenore III – Karajan/BPO Egmont – Kletzki/Czech PO
Symphonies, Period
1. Mackerras/Scottish Chamber Orchestra 3. Harnoncourt/Chamber Orchestra of Europe 5. Immerseel/Anima Eterna 7. Gardiner/Orchestre Revolutionnare et Romantique 9. Bruggen/Orchestra of 18th Century
String Quartets
13. Alban Berg Grosse Fugue. Alban Berg 14. Lasalle 15. Amadeus 16. Quartetto Italiano
Missa Solemnis – Jochum/Concertgebouw
Symphonies, II (I really like Beethoven's symphonies!)
Nice overview, I'm happy Solti got some love in the second list >< his 5/7 symphonies are standouts imo. You can tell so much about a musician with whether or not they like his second piano concerto LOL
Ironically I actually like op. 2 and his later sonata recordings by Gould, he takes the the 3rd movement of op. 14 way too fucking fast and loses the line imo. Kinda sad Gulda didn't get a mention for some of his Sonata interpretations.
Ashkenazy's Cm concerto is a really nice interpretation in addition to Zimerman but I don't think anyone can surmount Arrau's last recording of the Emperor.
Beethoven is the most overrated composer imo. Sure I can enjoy his music, but people like Bach, Mozart, Handel, and basically every other big name composer from the Baroque/Classical eras is just waaaaaaay better. Compared to a genius like Mozart, a lot of Beethoven's music sounds coarse and vulgar to me.
Not too familiar with a lot of their symphonies and orchestral works, but personally, when I played piano, I enjoyed Beethoven's pieces a lot more than Mozart's.
On December 17 2012 08:37 NeVeR wrote: Beethoven is the most overrated composer imo. Sure I can enjoy his music, but people like Bach, Mozart, Handel, and basically every other big name composer from the Baroque/Classical eras is just waaaaaaay better. Compared to a genius like Mozart, a lot of Beethoven's music sounds coarse and vulgar to me.
To me, that sounds as ridiculous as someone who cannot enjoy a 20$ bottle of wine because they are "used" to 100 $ bottles. Maybe its just me because I have heard more Mozart in my life than anyone ever should but Beethoven is as much a master as the others are. Of course Romantics > all but hey.
On December 17 2012 08:37 NeVeR wrote: Beethoven is the most overrated composer imo. Sure I can enjoy his music, but people like Bach, Mozart, Handel, and basically every other big name composer from the Baroque/Classical eras is just waaaaaaay better. Compared to a genius like Mozart, a lot of Beethoven's music sounds coarse and vulgar to me.
On December 17 2012 07:01 Badfatpanda wrote: Nice overview, I'm happy Solti got some love in the second list >< his 5/7 symphonies are standouts imo. You can tell so much about a musician with whether or not they like his second piano concerto LOL
Ironically I actually like op. 2 and his later sonata recordings by Gould, he takes the the 3rd movement of op. 14 way too fucking fast and loses the line imo. Kinda sad Gulda didn't get a mention for some of his Sonata interpretations.
Ashkenazy's Cm concerto is a really nice interpretation in addition to Zimerman but I don't think anyone can surmount Arrau's last recording of the Emperor.
I just like all kinds of Beethoven. Very rarely will I offhandedly dismiss an interpretation because I don't like it, unless it is actually based in no logic or reason while also sounding awful (Cobra comes to mind).I threw in Gould because it's very iconoclastic, and I don't find it repellent. I enjoy it quite a lot, but yes, there are plenty of more traditional recordings that are also superb. Also Moonlight is Op 27, 2
I should've put Gulda in somewhere but as I compiled the list it slipped my mind D:
On December 17 2012 08:12 rabidch wrote: yo send me jochum's missa i havent heard it yet
its also kodaly's and shchedrin's birthday as well, biased cheep
Jochum's Missa is on like every torrent site it's not exactly obscure @_@
Beethoven > Kodaly + Shchedrin. I am unashamedly biased!
On December 17 2012 07:01 Badfatpanda wrote: Nice overview, I'm happy Solti got some love in the second list >< his 5/7 symphonies are standouts imo. You can tell so much about a musician with whether or not they like his second piano concerto LOL
Ironically I actually like op. 2 and his later sonata recordings by Gould, he takes the the 3rd movement of op. 14 way too fucking fast and loses the line imo. Kinda sad Gulda didn't get a mention for some of his Sonata interpretations.
Ashkenazy's Cm concerto is a really nice interpretation in addition to Zimerman but I don't think anyone can surmount Arrau's last recording of the Emperor.
I just like all kinds of Beethoven. Very rarely will I offhandedly dismiss an interpretation because I don't like it, unless it is actually based in no logic or reason while also sounding awful (Cobra comes to mind).I threw in Gould because it's very iconoclastic, and I don't find it repellent. I enjoy it quite a lot, but yes, there are plenty of more traditional recordings that are also superb. Also Moonlight is Op 27, 2
I should've put Gulda in somewhere but as I compiled the list it slipped my mind D:
On December 17 2012 08:37 NeVeR wrote: Beethoven is the most overrated composer imo. Sure I can enjoy his music, but people like Bach, Mozart, Handel, and basically every other big name composer from the Baroque/Classical eras is just waaaaaaay better. Compared to a genius like Mozart, a lot of Beethoven's music sounds coarse and vulgar to me.
I love Bach and Handel, Mozart is a bit meh, I can hear the 'mercenary' quality in his music too much. As in, I can just hear that often he is just wanting to get paid and prostitutes his genius while Beethoven didn't. Beethoven was a genius just like any of them, in my opinion his music is the most innovative, explosive and intensely passionate out of any composer. I can see why you might think Beethoven coarse and vulgar though. If you are the sort of person who is fairly dispassionate in life, maybe scared of emotion, not used to expressing yourself, maybe often hiding how you feel because you are afraid of how people will think, judging others for releasing their passions in public, I can see how you would find Beethoven to be over the top. Not everyone is capable of withstanding the withering baring of the soul Beethoven undertakes in his pieces.
I am still on the journey to discover Ludwig van Beethoven. Even Beethoven had just 12 notes (repeated over several octaves of course.) 12 notes only allow for a limited number combinations. What Beethoven did, is hard to describe. When I see a part of the score of the ninth, to see how we wrote a particular passage, I see that his understanding of music is way beyond mine. His solutions to express certain feelings and to paint images – having only 12 notes – are worth of studying.
Back a few years ago when I was unemployed during summer (sigh I was lazy and couldn't even find a part-time job) one day I decided oh what the heck so I played all of his sonatas over three days or so. About a third of them were sight-reading (especially towards the back end) so it was probably mediocre at best, but hey I felt like I went through a huge emotional journey. I should probably get around to doing it again in the upcoming holidays.
On December 17 2012 08:37 NeVeR wrote: Beethoven is the most overrated composer imo. Sure I can enjoy his music, but people like Bach, Mozart, Handel, and basically every other big name composer from the Baroque/Classical eras is just waaaaaaay better. Compared to a genius like Mozart, a lot of Beethoven's music sounds coarse and vulgar to me.
I love Bach and Handel, Mozart is a bit meh, I can hear the 'mercenary' quality in his music too much. As in, I can just hear that often he is just wanting to get paid and prostitutes his genius while Beethoven didn't. Beethoven was a genius just like any of them, in my opinion his music is the most innovative, explosive and intensely passionate out of any composer. I can see why you might think Beethoven coarse and vulgar though. If you are the sort of person who is fairly dispassionate in life, maybe scared of emotion, not used to expressing yourself, maybe often hiding how you feel because you are afraid of how people will think, judging others for releasing their passions in public, I can see how you would find Beethoven to be over the top. Not everyone is capable of withstanding the withering baring of the soul Beethoven undertakes in his pieces.
I find Mozart a bit too pleasing and almost always a bit too light.
Beethovens music seems more substantial to me. I am not just hearing the music, it almost feels like I am composing together with him, having a discourse (where of course Ludwig is the genius and I am the noob.)
For some reason. Beethoven's 6th symphony on iTunes is slightly faster than the original or other ones on youtube. I like the slow one. Sounds much more authentic - if that is even legal to say.
On January 25 2013 00:04 KAB00000000M wrote: For some reason. Beethoven's 6th symphony on iTunes is slightly faster than the original or other ones on youtube. I like the slow one. Sounds much more authentic - if that is even legal to say.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/w9V5X.jpg)
