Velocity or slowness?

[arielkofman]

Here ,s a topic about the unsuspected derivations from my last one,the Ann Sophie Mutter-Masur version of OP61.
I agree some musics need velocity to express properly itselves p27nº2(third movement),op 54(first mov.),and many others...
I must say when I heard the Bernstein-New York Phil.Orch.(slow one)I felt something was going wrong.
But with op 61 I don,t like the unbridled versions,sounding like if musicians were late to have dinner with parents.
The first mov.(allegro MA NON TROPPO)shows a poetic and at the same time majestic melody,conditions that are killed(in my point of view)with a high speed.(in Toscanini,s it sounds almost military).
Contrarily,the rondo CERTAINLY needs a higher grade of speed,to let live the spark and vivacity of the contagious and dancing motive. In A:S.Mutter ,s version (with Masur as conductor)I founded balance between slowness/speed ,beautiful violin,s timbre,and a brillant largheto...
I must recognize i,m an amateur ,nor musician ,neither musicologist,and maybe I,m wrong ,but I feel this way.
Finally ,and excusing myself for my poor english ,I leave you a Beethovenian embrace... Ariel

[King Stephen]

Originally posted by arielkofman:
Here ,s a topic about the unsuspected derivations from my last one,the Ann Sophie Mutter-Masur version of OP61.
I agree some musics need velocity to express properly itselves p27nº2(third movement),op 54(first mov.),and many others...
I must say when I heard the Bernstein-New York Phil.Orch.(slow one)I felt something was going wrong.
But with op 61 I don,t like the unbridled versions,sounding like if musicians were late to have dinner with parents.
The first mov.(allegro MA NON TROPPO)shows a poetic and at the same time majestic melody,conditions that are killed(in my point of view)with a high speed.(in Toscanini,s it sounds almost military).
Contrarily,the rondo CERTAINLY needs a higher grade of speed,to let live the spark and vivacity of the contagious and dancing motive. In A:S.Mutter ,s version (with Masur as conductor)I founded balance between slowness/speed ,beautiful violin,s timbre,and a brillant largheto...
I must recognize i,m an amateur ,nor musician ,neither musicologist,and maybe I,m wrong ,but I feel this way.
Finally ,and excusing myself for my poor english ,I leave you a Beethovenian embrace... Ariel

Ariel, if you like the Mutter w/ Masur recording, so be it. It's great that we can pick the interpretations that we like. Case in point, Stowkoski's version of the first movement of Beethoven's 5th is taken so slow you could almost fall a sleep to it, where on the other hand Kleiber's rendition of the same movement is at a pace that makes you feel that indeed "Fate is knocking at the Door". Yet there are people that like the tempo in a more regal and majestic fashion (slow). To each her/his own.

[Gurn Blanston]

Ariel,
I agree completely with King. He is royalty, you should listen to him! Anyway, this is why I usually avoid discussions about versions, and also on this site we don't talk much about that, which I love. If you like what you hear, then that is the right version for you. In some things, to take King's example of the 5th, I have 6 different versions of the 5th, they are all good, but they are all different. At one time, a certain thing pleases me, at another time, it is a different thing. And of course I have 7 versions currently of the 9th, and it would be a funny thing to say they were all the same


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

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Ariel,
I agree completely with King. He is royalty, you should listen to him! Anyway, this is why I usually avoid discussions about versions, and also on this site we don't talk much about that, which I love. If you like what you hear, then that is the right version for you. In some things, to take King's example of the 5th, I have 6 different versions of the 5th, they are all good, but they are all different. At one time, a certain thing pleases me, at another time, it is a different thing. And of course I have 7 versions currently of the 9th, and it would be a funny thing to say they were all the same

[QUOTE]

Gurn, As royalty would have it, I have in my collection 14 different cd recordings and 4 more in my 'obsolete' LP collection of the 9th, all are listened to at one time or another, depending on my mood. By the way the opera was great.



[This message has been edited by King Stephen (edited 06-26-2004).]

[Tony John Hearne]

Strange however how the first recording that one gets "used to" - the first hearing over repeated occasions when the work is met for the first time - can stay as the preferred version. Not always, for sure, but certainly for one of my first ever classical music appreciations - the Sibelius Vioin Concerto -I have still not heard better than Kyung Wha Chung with Andre Previn and the LSO from 1970
Similarly for the Maestro's Appassionata - Sviatoslav Richter

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Love from London

[Gurn Blanston]

I very much agree with that. The example I use is the Mendelssohn Piano Concertos. My first version was Rudolf Serkin with the Philadelphia's/Ormandy. Serkin plays so fast he sounds as though a little stumble on the keys will result in a broken arm! But I listened only to this version for 2 years before hearing another, and now have listened to 4 or 5 others, all slower (but the same as each other, so probably correct), and to me, there is and always will be this great performance by Serkin, all others are poor seconds.


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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[~Immortal Beloved~]

Originally posted by King Stephen:



Gurn, As royalty would have it, I have in my collection 14 different cd recordings and 4 more in my 'obsolete' LP collection of the 9th, all are listened to at one time or another, depending on my mood. By the way the opera was great.

[This message has been edited by King Stephen (edited 06-26-2004).]

Wow! To us Beethoven fans, You are a true king!

[Rod]

Czerny made the supremely valid point in his analysis of Beethoven's compositions - never let the music slip into 'tempo ordinario'!


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