Beethoven Symphony Cycles

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • BBMmk2
    Late Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 20908

    Isn't there another Beethoven Symphony cycle around here?
    Don’t cry for me
    I go where music was born

    J S Bach 1685-1750

    Comment

    • ferneyhoughgeliebte
      Gone fishin'
      • Sep 2011
      • 30163

      Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
      ... 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> )
      [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

      Comment

      • Bryn
        Banned
        • Mar 2007
        • 24688

        Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
        .

        ... 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.
        Last edited by Bryn; 31-05-18, 09:06.

        Comment

        • Bryn
          Banned
          • Mar 2007
          • 24688

          Originally posted by Brassbandmaestro View Post
          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.

          Comment

          • Richard Barrett
            Guest
            • Jan 2016
            • 6259

            Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
            ... 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.

            Comment

            • Eine Alpensinfonie
              Host
              • Nov 2010
              • 20568

              We've had a thread on this before:

              Comment

              • richardfinegold
                Full Member
                • Sep 2012
                • 7631

                Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
                .

                ... 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.

                Comment

                • vinteuil
                  Full Member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 12761

                  Originally posted by Richard Barrett View Post
                  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.

                  .

                  Comment

                  • Richard Barrett
                    Guest
                    • Jan 2016
                    • 6259

                    Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
                    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!

                    Comment

                    • cloughie
                      Full Member
                      • Dec 2011
                      • 22107

                      Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post
                      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!

                      Comment

                      • richardfinegold
                        Full Member
                        • Sep 2012
                        • 7631

                        Originally posted by cloughie View Post
                        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

                        Comment

                        • verismissimo
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 2957

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

                          Comment

                          • BBMmk2
                            Late Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 20908

                            Originally posted by verismissimo View Post
                            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.
                            Don’t cry for me
                            I go where music was born

                            J S Bach 1685-1750

                            Comment

                            • Bryn
                              Banned
                              • Mar 2007
                              • 24688

                              Originally posted by Brassbandmaestro View Post
                              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.

                              Comment

                              • cloughie
                                Full Member
                                • Dec 2011
                                • 22107

                                Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post
                                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.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X