2012 BBC proms - Beethoven symphonies

[Quijote]

I see what you're driving at, and on 'first principles' one may well share your viewpoint. The same applies for the recent 'classical music festival' in Colmar (Alsace, France) where a Haydn programme was 'juxtaposed' with a Cage work, though the organizers of that particular concert did not claim any connection.
Still, such juxtapositions are quite interesting in as much that they show 'where we have come from'.
Specifically then, the Boulez throws no light whatsoever on Beethoven's development, but the reverse may well be so. Even Boulez has said that conducting Mahler, Wagner and Bruckner (hooray!) has given him insights into how one can compose and sustain extended musical structures.

[Peter]

I see what you're driving at, and on 'first principles' one may well share your viewpoint. The same applies for the recent 'classical music festival' in Colmar (Alsace, France) where a Haydn programme was 'juxtaposed' with a Cage work, though the organizers of that particular concert did not claim any connection.
Still, such juxtapositions are quite interesting in as much that they show 'where we have come from'.
Specifically then, the Boulez throws no light whatsoever on Beethoven's development, but the reverse may well be so. Even Boulez has said that conducting Mahler, Wagner and Bruckner (hooray!) has given him insights into how one can compose and sustain extended musical structures.

I have no problem programming contemporary with Classical or even Renaissance, but this was a Beethoven cycle of symphonies designed to celebrate Beethoven's towering achievement in symphonic writing and in Barenboim's own words to show HIS development as a composer. From that perspective Boulez was a distraction. The fact is Barenboim was simply seeking to draw a larger audience to Boulez using the Beethoven symphonies as bait which does seem to me to lack artistic integrity.

I agree that the reverse perspective is justifiable and rewarding - for example Bartok quartets with Beethoven's make perfect sense, but again not if a complete cycle of Beethoven quartets is being attempted.