Authentic page mp3s - Symphony nr4 Op.60

[Peter]

Now available to members at www.kingsbarn.freeserve.co.uk/authentic.html

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'Man know thyself'

[Rod]

Originally posted by Peter:
Now available to members at www.kingsbarn.freeserve.co.uk/authentic.html

This is a good effort by Goodman and the Hanover Band. I used a lower resolution than usual for the mp3s like I did for op58. Hope they sound alright as I haven't heard them yet myself.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Chris]

Thanks, Rod, these are pretty good. I'm not much of a fan of period intruments for Beethoven symphonies, but I enjoyed these. Perhaps a little fast for my taste in places and a couple of balance problems, but very good overall.

[Peter]

Originally posted by Rod:
This is a good effort by Goodman and the Hanover Band. I used a lower resolution than usual for the mp3s like I did for op58. Hope they sound alright as I haven't heard them yet myself.

Well I've just listened to the finale and enjoyed it very much, I'm always surprised at the lack of popularity of this sparkling witty work even amongst members here! - the lower resolution does make a difference, but I think it is adequate and acceptable, especially as it allows for more music!

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'Man know thyself'

[Rod]

The adagio is quicker here than usual from my experience, and this is how it should be, yet the relatively small scale of the orchestra and the nature of the instruments maintains transparency. It is laboured too much usually and this seems a little out of character with the other movements.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 11-02-2004).]

[Peter]

Originally posted by Rod:

The adagio is quicker here than usual from my experience, and this is how it should be, yet the relatively small scale of the orchestra and the nature of the instruments maintains transparency. It is laboured too much usually and this seems a little out of character with the other movements.

Just listened to the adagio an yes I agree the tempo is spot on - adagio is usually taken way too slow, the slow movement of the Pathetique sonata is another example. I really enjoy the Hanover band's playing and the clarity of sound that reveals all the score's details.

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'Man know thyself'

[Gurn Blanston]

Rod,
Very nice, I see the Hanover's work with the 9th wasn't a one-off! Whatever disparate elements are involved in successful period performance, the Hanovers have it in spades.
Thanks,

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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[Hollywood]

Thank you once again Rod for this piece. It's been awhile since I have listened to the Sym. #4. My recording of this symphony (along with the 7th) is with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by von Karajan. Here is a bit of what Stefan Kunze wrote about this symphony in the CD jacket:

In the later nineteenth century, the Fourth was perhaps the least popular of Beethoven's symphonies. It was felt to lack the heroism and drama, the gravity of the others. Wagner once referred to it as "cold music", though he thought the scherzo "glorious". Berlioz showed more insight: Beethoven had abandoned "ode and elegy ...in order to turn back to the less sublime and less stormy, but perhaps no less difficult, style of the Second Symphony. The character (of the Fourth) is generally lively, fresh, serene or celestially delicate..." Indeed, after the Eroica, the spirit of the Fourth is one of inward and outward tranquillity, allowing objects and figures to be seen in an air clarified by the spirit, as if from a great height. While every bar proclaims its composer, it is the Beethoven who could look back to Haydn, to whom he owed even more than to Mozart. He employs the orchestra of Haydn and Mozart: for the sake of transparency, he even sacrifices a second flute. It is that trasparency which led Schumann to refer to the "Grecian slenderness" of the work. Nevertheless, the orchestral texture reveals the stamp of Beethoven in every chord, which is one of the wonders of this score.

The second subject (movement) has a pastoral air, enhanced by its exposition by bassoon, oboe and flute. The unselfconsciousness and unalloyed happiness of the Adagio sees the rhythmic pulse of the first movement becomes the insistent counterpoint to an unclouded cantabile...The character of the finale is a rumbustious dance, playful and inventive; it has been underestimated, because it does not display the sublimity, the heroic weight of other Beethoven finales. But it possess unique qualities of its own, combing the pulse of a perpetuum mobile with an easy elegance and a vivacious wit.

In spite of the transparency of its structures, Beethoven's contemporaries do not appear to have found the Fourth easier to grasp than his other works. The first (semi public) performance took place before "a very select company" in the palace of Prince Lobkowitz in March 1807. Kotzebue's journal Der Freimütige was to remark that "Beethoven has written a new symphony which was liked by at most his rabid admirers" (14 Jan. 1808). And the acid comments of Carl Maria von Weber are a clear indication of the width of the gulf that separated the generation of the Romantics from Beethoven's music.

[Rod]

Good news for fortepiano fans, Ronald Brautigam is recording the complete Beethoven solo fortepiano works on the BIS label. Vol 1 has just been released. Check this link:
http://www.highfidelityreview.com/ne...umber=18171295

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin