Beethoven's 8th: What's it all about?

[vinteuil]

... what is anything "about"??

Where are Pete and Dud when you need them????

[salymap]

For the record I didn't complain about the OP's colourful turn of phrase and please don't go if you can get members to talkabout Beethoven rather than politics Thropple.

[Bryn]

For the record I didn't complain about the OP's colourful turn of phrase and please don't go if you can get members to talkabout Beethoven rather than politics Thropple.

Ah yes. Beethoven's politics. Now there's a topic worth discussing.

This, written by a then fellow traveler of the People's Republic of China, came out towards the end of the Chinese Great proletarian Cultural Revolution. Shortly after its publication, articles in support of the then campaign against Confucianism appeared in the Chinese press attacking Beethoven as a bourgeois composer. Ms. Knight was somewhat put out.

[visualnickmos]

Come back Tngn - that's one the many aspects that make these boards as intreresting and absorbing as they are - good old-fashioned knockabout banter, occasionally. Don't go.....

[cloughie]

Come back Tngn - that's one the many aspects that make these boards as intreresting and absorbing as they are - good old-fashioned knockabout banter, occasionally. Don't go.....

...apart from anything else I'll miss the silly name.

[teamsaint]

I still think he is related to Noggin the Nog....which would be a good thing !



Anyway, good discussion, shall be whirling the 8th again very soon,with some of todays comments in mind.

Thanks for all the Brahms 2 advice. A new version may make all the difference....or perhaps a nice night out when somebody is playing it.Any excuse, really !!

[cloughie]

I still think he is related to Noggin the Nog....which would be a good thing !



Anyway, good discussion, shall be whirling the 8th again very soon,with some of todays comments in mind.

Thanks for all the Brahms 2 advice. A new version may make all the difference....or perhaps a nice night out when somebody is playing it.Any excuse, really !!

ts on Brahms 2 my preferences are for Kempe or Monteux but they are both part of non-economical boxes now. The Boult is excellent -treat yourself to:

http://www.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk/en/Music/CD/search.html?t=boult+bach+to+wagner&section=music/cd

Hardly a bad track on it - stunning value.

[Nick Armstrong]

Brahms 2 ....or perhaps a nice night out when somebody is playing it.Any excuse, really !!

[teamsaint]

Another grrr....I have promised to mend my ways, try new recordings, try it live.....is there no redemption on this board?

[Nick Armstrong]

Another grrr....I have promised to mend my ways, try new recordings, try it live.....is there no redemption on this board?

Only pulling your leg!

[Tony Halstead]

It can get cold in Space. A little flatus may be usefully warming.
For me the 8th has always been the twin of the 7th. Both emphasize rhythm more than his previous works, most famously in the "metronome" movement of the 8th.
The 8th is the one LvB symphony that tends to benefit from a period approach. Smaller orchestras tend to sound more lithe and agile. My favorites are Hogwood and Szell/Cleveland.

Szell/ Cleveland: agreed, a stupendous performance ( one of my teachers was playing 1st horn ) but as for 'smaller orchestras' - I'm pretty sure that Hogwood used a gigantic orchestra for his recording: double woodwind , four horns, four trumpets and about 70 ( yes seventy) strings!

[teamsaint]

ts on Brahms 2 my preferences are for Kempe or Monteux but they are both part of non-economical boxes now. The Boult is excellent -treat yourself to:

http://www.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk/en/Music/CD/search.html?t=boult+bach+to+wagner§ion=music/cd

Hardly a bad track on it - stunning value.

Hmmmm looks too good to miss..I think I will have to invest, and put it on the "education" rather than "entertainment "part of the budget......that way everybody will be happy !

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I love this work, yet I was amazed to discover that I have only one recording (VPO Schmidt-Isserstedt).

The close of the second movement always puzzles me. This movement (in B flat) seems as though it's going to end in E flat major, but a rather hurried modulation back to B flat in the last 3 bars always gives the impression of ending in the dominant.

[MickyD]

Szell/ Cleveland: agreed, a stupendous performance ( one of my teachers was playing 1st horn ) but as for 'smaller orchestras' - I'm pretty sure that Hogwood used a gigantic orchestra for his recording: double woodwind , four horns, four trumpets and about 70 ( yes seventy) strings!

That's right, Hogwood did. For me it is an amazingly full-blooded and thrilling performance, though I remember it wasn't to everyone's taste when it came out. I think I am right in saying that much the same sized orchestra was used for the 7th, they featured on the same disc.

[visualnickmos]

Looks like he ain't comin' back!