Beethoven Symphony Cycles

[BBMmk2]

Isn't there another Beethoven Symphony cycle around here?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... I wonder if Beethoven wd ever have considered them as 'a cycle'.

Indeed - and true of most composers who have written a series of Symphonies, of course. (And I'm glad I referred to the Krivine "set" in my reply. <phew> )

[Bryn]

.

... I wonder if Beethoven wd ever have considered them as 'a cycle'.

Were they not rather separate responses to creative imperatives at various points and very different times in his life?

He was surely a 'different' person in 1795-1800 from how he was in 1822-1824.

The very reason I tend to use the term "survey", rather than "cycle", and not just for the Beethoven symphonies. That said, for me, Barry Cooper's construction from sketches for a 10th does hark back towards the 1st, though still not enough to form a cycle.

[I see Wyn Morris's survey of the '10' symphonies was released as a boxed set last year, with revised notes by Barry Cooper re. the '10th':]

Update.

[Bryn]

Isn't there another Beethoven Symphony cycle around here?

Well, I suppose Dan Milligan's repeated cycling problems were pretty closely associated with his composition of the Eroica.

[Richard Barrett]

... I wonder if Beethoven wd ever have considered them as 'a cycle'.

I would think that the idea of a "symphony cycle" began in relation to Beethoven's work, fairly soon after his death.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

We've had a thread on this before:

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?3755-Beethoven-Symphony-Cycles&highlight=Beethoven+symphony+cycles

[richardfinegold]

.

... I wonder if Beethoven wd ever have considered them as 'a cycle'.

Were they not rather separate responses to creative imperatives at various points and very different times in his life?

He was surely a 'different' person in 1795-1800 from how he was in 1822-1824.

.

Certainly he underwent changes in the decades between 1 and 9, as any of us do. However I would argue that the distance traveled between early and late Piano Sonatas and String Quartets is greater than that of the Symphonies.

[vinteuil]

I would think that the idea of a "symphony cycle" began in relation to Beethoven's work, fairly soon after his death.

... yes, that's a really interesting line of thought. I imagine work has been done on the reception history of The Symphonies - and perhaps it was with the proto-Carlylean view of Beethoven as the first 'Composer As Hero' that this way of perceiving an artist's life-work - the 'totality of the journey' in the words of the Original Poster - takes root.

.

[Richard Barrett]

perhaps it was with the proto-Carlylean view of Beethoven as the first 'Composer As Hero' that this way of perceiving an artist's life-work - the 'totality of the journey' in the words of the Original Poster - takes root.

That's what I was thinking. But I wasn't about to plunge into the academic literature to find out!

[cloughie]

Certainly he underwent changes in the decades between 1 and 9, as any of us do. However I would argue that the distance traveled between early and late Piano Sonatas and String Quartets is greater than that of the Symphonies.

Does that not dimiss the seismic jump to the Eroica!

[richardfinegold]

Does that not dimiss the seismic jump to the Eroica!

Mmm, to my mind the composer of the Eroica is still recognizable as the Composer of Symphonies 1/2. I struggle to see the same person of the Quartet Op.18/3 in Op. 131. or the author of the Pathetique Sonata in Op. 106 or Op.111.
Ymmv

[verismissimo]

Currently much in love with the BPO/Cluytens 'cycle' on Erato from the late 1950s. (Haven't listened to the 9th, however.)

[BBMmk2]

Currently much in love with the BPO/Cluytens 'cycle' on Erato from the late 1950s. (Haven't listened to the 9th, however.)

From what a friend was saying, this is very special cycle. I haven’t listened yet, but will in due course.

[Bryn]

From what a friend was saying, this is very special cycle. I haven’t listened yet, but will in due course.

For me, it beats the famous set Karajan recorded with the same orchestra a few years after. I was lucky enough to get it in the 50 CD French EMI Beethoven Collector's box, twice. The first box cost me around £40. The second was a no-brainer at £5 in an HMV sale.

[cloughie]

Mmm, to my mind the composer of the Eroica is still recognizable as the Composer of Symphonies 1/2. I struggle to see the same person of the Quartet Op.18/3 in Op. 131. or the author of the Pathetique Sonata in Op. 106 or Op.111.
Ymmv

Perhaps I should have said sizemic. There may well be recognisable as the same composer but the scale is much greater, and I think that a similar evolution took place in pthe Symphonies as in his chamber works.