Best Performance/Recording of the 5th?

[Peter]

My first experience with the 5th was with the Toscanini recording (1952 recording) and to this date it is my favorite. The recording has been remastered and I think they did a pretty good job with it. The energy that Toscanini gets out of his orchestra is superb and from start to finish I find it exhilarating each time I listen to it.

Btw, welcome to the forum, Milanodan!

Here's the great man in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6K_IuBsRM4

[Preston]

I've heard several recordings and I always come back to this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRgXUFnfKIY

They, RIP, it!


By the way, welcome, .

[Sorrano]

Here's the great man in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6K_IuBsRM4

Thanks for the link! I still get chills from hearing those opening notes of this recording; it was one of the first lp's I ever had.

[Sorrano]

I've heard several recordings and I always come back to this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRgXUFnfKIY

They, RIP, it!


By the way, welcome, .

It has a very nice orchestral sound.

[Preston]

It has a very nice orchestral sound.

I agree. It is really very powerful too. The thing it is I don't know who performed it?

[Preston]

So Milanodan, what did you come up with?

[Milanodan]

So Milanodan, what did you come up with?

Been too busy with other stuff I haven't had time to listen to anything. I did make time to dig thru my old LP records, and found an unplayed performance by George Szell and the Cleveland Orch.

I think it's mono, no real info on the jacket. I'm going to copy it on a CD the first time I play it on my old AR turntable. Will be interesting to see how my Yamaha DSP-1 (digital sound processor) handles it.

But for me, the Bernstein performance just flows so smoothly and rings that awful hall like a bell. I suppose it isn't just as the master composed it, but I like to think he'd approve of such big sound from a big orchestra.

[Preston]

But for me, the Bernstein performance just flows so smoothly and rings that awful hall like a bell. I suppose it isn't just as the master composed it, but I like to think he'd approve of such big sound from a big orchestra.

I imagine he would have, too. He was always pushing the limits of orchestral use, so that is one sign. He wrote some very serious and powerful music which seems fitting for a Bosendorfer piano or a large orchestra. Those things and to my understanding the orchestras in Beethoven's time were not nearly as capable and mastered as those of today.

There are probably a lot of people with better suggestions than I as to why Beethoven would or would not prefer the modern orchestra.

Now imo, as for the music and the way modern orchestras play it - that is a different story, :-)!

[Milanodan]

Now imo, as for the music and the way modern orchestras play it - that is a different story, :-)!

OK, spill!

[Preston]

OK, spill!

Sorry for the late response, Milanodan. I was referring to my own, probably wrong, personal beliefs. I just wonder, at times, and of course given the individual piece, if the feeling of the piece has been lost throughout the hundreds upon hundreds of years and the musicians are just playing notes on a page, so to say?

I have heard of people who play a melody love it and then forget the feel of the melody (not the notes) in anywhere from seconds, to minutes, to hours, etc. Such as, if I made a melody out of 5, etc. notes - that melody is based on my feeling, so to say. Though, if I forget the feeling then it is just five notes (same tempo, etc.), but just five notes because the feeling has been forgotten. The same applies to not only melody but rhythm, harmony, etc. everything with music.

If the feeling is lost - then it is notes on the page and not what the composer intended. As I said, I am probably wrong. Though, I do think it is something that is worth questioning?