Complete Beethoven Edition for FIFTY EURO!!!

[Michael]

Every recording of the lieder seems to take some liberties. I love Prey's set but a lot of the songs have been cut down to one verse. Several verses have been removed from "Urian's Voyage Round the World" but as this song contains about fifteen strophic verses, I think it might be just as well. Both Prey and Fischer-Dieskau (or their producer/arrangers) have cut "Marmotte" down to one or two verses but I have heard at least four in a radio broadcast. Consequently, I have never been able to figure out what that last song is about.
I still think the €50 complete set is great value in spite of a number of careless glitches, especially when you bear in mind that the august DGG set will set you back about ten times that (if you can get it).
The new Brilliant set looks very promising if you don't want the latest in CD sound quality. Symphonies by Masur, piano sonatas by Gulda and the quartets by the Guarneri. I suspect that all these would be in vintage sixties-seventies stereo which can sound a lot better than the sterile digital stuff that came out later.
Regarding the vocal works, this new set will contain (or so the blurb goes) all texts in English and will have liner notes. (Please verify this before anybody considers buying it.)
I still don't know the price of this new set or where it can be purchased but it isn't due out until September.

[gardibolt]

Oh, there's no denying that this set is a superb bargain. I'm just a little disappointed that it doesn't fill as many holes in my admittedly extensive collection as I would have hoped. The last few items are an annoyance, though. Someone needs to do a proper, complete version of the lieder, with all the verses.

I don't have the score in front of me, but I don't remember Marmotte as having any additional verses---I don't think it's a strophic song at all. It's possible that the radio version you heard tacked on some more; does the poem include any additional verses that could be made to fit?

[Michael]

I don't have the score in front of me, but I don't remember Marmotte as having any additional verses---I don't think it's a strophic song at all. It's possible that the radio version you heard tacked on some more; does the poem include any additional verses that could be made to fit?

I don't know the poem and have been unable to get any information about it. The setting is definitely strophic, though. I have an English translation for only one verse and just from memory, I think it runs: "I have travelled through many lands with the marmot" and I have a vague idea that it concerns a strolling minstrel or maybe just a vagabond with a pet squirrel (or something like a squirrel).
Another radio presenter said it was a song in praise of home cooking......

[gardibolt]

I don't know the poem and have been unable to get any information about it. The setting is definitely strophic, though. I have an English translation for only one verse and just from memory, I think it runs: "I have travelled through many lands with the marmot" and I have a vague idea that it concerns a strolling minstrel or maybe just a vagabond with a pet squirrel (or something like a squirrel).
Another radio presenter said it was a song in praise of home cooking......

The poem by Goethe does in fact have four verses:

1) Ich komme schon durch manche Land, avec que la Marmotte,
und immer was zu essen fand, avec que la Marmotte,

2) Ich hab geseh'n gar manchen Herrn avec que la Marmotte,
der hat die Jungfrau gar zu gern avec que la Marmotte.

3) Hab auch gesehn die Jungfer schön avec que la Marmotte,
die täte nach mir Kleinem sehn avec que la Marmotte.

4) Nun laßt mich nicht so gehn ihr Herrn avec que la Marmotte,
die Burschen essen und trinken gern avec que la Marmotte.

I'll have to look at my editions of the lieder to see whether Beethoven actually used them all, though. I'm only remembering the one verse, with the chorus "avec que si, avec que la, avec que la Marmotte; avec que si avec que la, avec que la Marmotte." But I've been known to misremember such things before. A "marmotte" is a small furry rodent; woodchucks are part of the same family. Not to be confused with a marmoset, which is a monkey. Even though everything's better with monkeys.

[Michael]

Macaronic! Could anybody translate, although I don't think that would help in explaining it. I think it's from a play and the context is missing.

[gardibolt]

I suspect it's just nonsense and meant to be silly--it is after all half German and half French. In any event, I checked my scores of op. 52, and as I remembered, there's only the first verse utilized by Beethoven for this song (though all 14 verses of Urians Reise op.52 nr 1 are there).

[Peter]

Macaronic! Could anybody translate, although I don't think that would help in explaining it. I think it's from a play and the context is missing.

I thought I had it for dinner last night!

[Michael]

I thought I had it for dinner last night!

Do you want to start off another thread of puns, Peter? I thought we were pasta all that.

[gardibolt]

You're quite right---the First symphony is missing the first two bars in this set. Good thing I had some warning or might have gone apoplectic. Cutting corners is one thing, but did they really have to snip off the first two measure? Better than the last two I guess.....Otherwise the performances seem serviceable if not entirely awe-inspiring.

[Michael]

You're quite right---the First symphony is missing the first two bars in this set. Good thing I had some warning or might have gone apoplectic. Cutting corners is one thing, but did they really have to snip off the first two measure? Better than the last two I guess.....Otherwise the performances seem serviceable if not entirely awe-inspiring.

Somebody queried this error (on another website) and was told that it was "an artistic decision by the conductor". I do not jest.

[gardibolt]

I see. Should I ever meet "Eugen Duvier" I will be forced to slap him, hard.

[Michael]

I see. Should I ever meet "Eugen Duvier" I will be forced to slap him, hard.

You could describe it as another example of "The Unheard Beethoven".

[melvyn]

Somebody queried this error (on another website) and was told that it was "an artistic decision by the conductor". I do not jest.

A greater artist than Beethoven? We should be honoured. Has he rewritten any more of his works?

It sounds more like an error to me. Somebody started the tape at the wrong point!

[gardibolt]

At least the opening notes of the Eroica are intact....But that's not "Duvier."

[Michael]

Call me irresponsible (isn't that a song title?) but I have just purchased another "complete" Beethoven set. It's the 100 CD Brilliant Classics described here:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/Beethoven-Complet...QQcmdZViewItem

I bought it off an eBay online store which is in my backyard (Dublin) for the princely sum of 99 euro. What really sold me on it was the line-up: Symphonies by Masur, sonatas by Gulda, string quartets by the Guarneri, piano works by Brendel, etc. It also contains 15 extra discs of famous historic performances by Schnabel, Bush, Cortot and Casals. The clincher was the inclusion of the Furtwangler Fidelio from the early fifties (there are two Fidelios in the set, plus Leonora) which was my first and favourite version of the opera.
This is not a compilation for those who want the latest digital sound - the sonatas date from 1967 - but the main body of the works are (I hope) recorded in analogue stereo which I personally prefer. Period instrument fanatics also should beware.
Anyway, I will report on it when it arrives.

There is a cheaper 85 disc version available which does not include the 15 discs of historical performances.