Does it really take that long? ....

[MickyD]

Hmmm... I don't quite understand the question but I can certainly say which is my least favourite both to PLAY and to listen to: The 6th ('Pastoral').
In August 1987 I had the misfortune to play in three different and obviously competing 'HIPP' recordings of it :
AAM /Hogwood; Hanover Band/Goodman; LCP/Norrington.
Listed in alphabetical order of course, not 'order of preference'...

It must surely have been a fascinating experience, though, Tony?

[Dave2002]

Hmmm... I don't quite understand the question but I can certainly say which is my least favourite both to PLAY and to listen to: The 6th ('Pastoral').
In August 1987 I had the misfortune to play in three different and obviously competing 'HIPP' recordings of it :
AAM /Hogwood; Hanover Band/Goodman; LCP/Norrington.
Listed in alphabetical order of course, not 'order of preference'...

I'm sorry to hear you don't like it so much. I can listen to it about once a year and enjoy it - more than that - probably not. I must have all the versions you performed in.

I played the last movement (Karajan, one of the analogue versions, Tomowa Sintow) of the ninth recently to a small group of friends, and one of them admitted (cue for HS) that he really did not like that last movement at all. Good tune he said, but too much repetition.

[Serial_Apologist]

I can listen to it about once a year and enjoy it - more than that - probably not.

An interesting comment, probably worthy of a thread to itself: what pieces of music do you know which cannot withstand listening to more than once a year? My father used to say that of Dvorak's "New World" - to which my answer was always: once very ten years.

[Stanley Stewart]

Much refreshed after viewing the DVD recording of the Beethoven documentary, followed by the performance of the 5th symphony at St John's, Smith Square;many reminders of memorable performances there - an opportunity to hear Alberto Remedios in a concert performance of Peter Grimes - a role denied him at ENO- late 70s? Enlightened by the documentary and its portrayal of a young composer coping with a political maelstrom in Europe followed by the lucid guidance of John Eliot Gardiner before the performance. Tony Hall seems to be the bearer of good vibes at the Beeb as I'm still enjoying the fruits of the Renaissance Unchained series and a series of documentaries in the Imagine slot, early in the winter.

A 'magnificent obsession' moment as I sought a companion to join the Beethoven docs on a 240mins (LP setting) DVD and a memory prompt guided me in the direction of a first rate programme, Eroica, which Peter Maniura produced at the BBC in 2003; recorded on off-air video at the time and later transferred to DVD - introduced by Simon Russell Beale and a cast of stalwarts, Ian Hart,(Beethoven - and those sudden rages instantly register - and many players who can wear a costume with a natural authority; Jack Davenport, (Prince Lobkowitz), Tim Piggott-Smith (Count Dietrichstein), and Frank Finlay, listening intently before he quietly adds that 'everything is different from today'. This documentary would have slotted in well in a Beethoven season although aficionados are likely to have a copy on their shelves.

[Bryn]

[Stanley Stewart]

Oooooo! Thanks, Bryn, you've provided the missing art work for the DVD cover.