Beethoven's 5th tempi

[Peter]

Now we go to the other extreme with what to me is ridiculously ponderous but the comments on this link disagree with me - what about members here?

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bB6qMJ7HTI[/YOUTUBE]

[Chris]

I agree with you here. As an exercise, it's interesting to listen to the music slowed down to be able to pick out individual lines more easily, but as a performance this doesn't really work for me.

[PaulD]

Is it just me? I do not see the link in question in this thread

[Peter]

Is it just me? I do not see the link in question in this thread

Hello Paul - you need to click on the arrow in the centre of the picture.

[PaulD]

Hum...Peter, I see the video when I log in with my iPad. But when I log in with my PC, nothing at all shows up, just your text followed by a large grey area with nothing in it. That is bizarre because my iPad is an old dinosaur while my computer is brand-new with all software updated.

[Chris]

This channel (AuthenticSound) has several Beethoven recordings taken at very slow tempi based on their argument for the proper way to interpret Beethoven's metronome markings. Honestly, none of them really work for me.

[Decrepit Poster]

More that 'several', I think, most concerning the piano sonatas. All with the same theme, that a great many of B's fast movements should be played appreciably slower than we now consider the norm. I remember listening years ago to his first (?) video using this approach, a rendition of the Pathetique played on clavichord. (I believe I linked it here at the time.) I found the slower than usually final movement quite well suited to the clavichord, and the interpretation enjoyable. That said, these recent examples leave me scratching my head. If AuthenticSound is right, I can't see how Beethoven's music could have gained the reputation and staying power it has? As for this particular rendition, I just can't envision B wanting the fifth to sound as prim & proper as it comes off here. To be fair, this piano reduction is at an extra disadvantage at these slow speeds in that numerous passages definitely call for a more sustained sound than a keyboard can provided, even played four-hands.

[Albert Gans]

I have many recordings of the 5th, from Nikish to Zinman.... and I have very slow versions, like Klemperer (1st movement 8'04), or fast ones, like Gardiner (6'39). Zinman does 6'49, no doubt because of his interesting oboe solo. I like nearly all of the versions I have and although this piano version is really very, very slow, I think it also is a matter of balance between the different movements. This is something I vaguely remember Bernstein once said about the symphony.
Still, I agree that playing at this rate lacks quality in the sense that the vigorous nature of the movement, the bareness of it, gets lost at this pace. Hardly 'allegro con brio' !
I remember once seeing a concert with Haitink 'doing' a Mahler 3, with the RCO, where he interpreted the commas in the score as full stops and then some. It really killed the performance, and came as a shock to me from such a great (Mahler) conductor... I had seen several Mahler Symphonies by him by then and this just did not make sense. But even the best conductor can have an off day....

[PaulD]

Hello All. When I listen to an interpretation of the 5th, the tempo of the 1st mvt does not matter to much to me (as long as it is reasonable). What matters the most to me is the length of the last note of the Da-Da-Da-Da. Too short or too long bothers me. It has to be just right!