How many of the Beethoven symphonies do you actually LIKE?

[verismissimo]

What a strange thing. So Schumann Spring, Schubert 5, Piano Trio D898, Sonata D960, Shepherd on the Rock, Haydn 102, Mozart K595 and Serenade for 13 wind, Bach Brandenburg 6, Beethoven Op. 130 and Archduke Trio, Brahms's Sextet No. 1 - all duds in your book?

And any and all HIPP, mak.

[kea]

Well if they're HIP they'll technically be performed in A major (relative to A=440 temperament), and thus be acceptable to him

[Bergonzi]

You realy don't know what you are missing ... but then again ... perhaps you do!

I didn't mean what you thought I meant! My fault. I love the Haydn quartets, but I realise in answering a previous post it was ambiguous.

[Petrushka]

I love all of the Beethoven symphonies. How is it possible not to do so when they are the bedrock, not only of Western classical music, but also of any serious music-lover's recorded collection? I never tire of them and some of the disparaging comments here are something I'm surprised people are prepared to admit.

I've just this week been listening to Bernstein's NYPO cycle and once again the symphonies come up as fresh as new paint.

[antongould]

In the days of salymap surveys which many of us may recall ..... she possibly went OTT and asked for favourite 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. Symphonies

Beethoven achieved in this parish

1st no votes
2nd 1 vote in 8th equal position
3rd 4 votes 2nd position
4th 1 8th equal
5th 1 9th equal
6th 3 4th equal
7th 5 2nd
8th 1 5th equal
9th 7 1st equal

..... they say data is never wasted but perhaps it is ....

[Richard Tarleton]

...they are the bedrock, not only of Western classical music, but also of any serious music-lover's recorded collection? .

Pet, I regard myself as a serious music lover (and serious amateur player), and am quite prepared to admit to only owning recordings of 2,3,5,6,7 and 9, and no complete sets. As for bedrock - there are surely numerous, erm, strata, below? - not to flog the geological metaphor too hard Substitute "standard concert repertoire", perhaps, for "western classical music?" I haven't heard all of them performed live, either (some often, of course - I'm obsessed with 7, adore 6...) - although broadcast, of course, hundreds of times. With so many performances available there's never seemed much point, to me, in actually acquiring multiple sets/versions

I do own multiple complete sets of the string quartets, piano sonatas, chamber music....

[Serial_Apologist]

I'll always thank Beethoven for the Fifth, which I was made to study for its structure at the age of 13. From it I learned all I needed that would carry me forward as regards sonata, variation, scherzo 'n' trio and rondo forms. I guess I like parts of them, rather than particularly as wholes, although I wouldn't listen to them in bleeding chunks. So, the slow movement of 7, for the reassurement offered by its theme and especially its fugal development - but not the scherzo & trio, which for me repeats its materials too much; No 8, this time in its entirety for its joyfulness, economy of means and treatment thereof; No 9 - not for the opening movement, which again I find repetitious to the point of tedious - a fault I often think in Beethoven, No 8 (and the late quartets) apart - but for the fugal treatment of the second movement's trumping this over-repetitive characteristic. I've never much liked Beethoven's approach to orchestration, finding it bloated after Mozart's lightness of touch. I don't think he was particularly concerned with timbre and combination, continuing Haydn's stock methods and inflating them as time went on. There again, orchestration is I find problematic until Berlioz and Liszt started to re-think and de-clutter it to make space for the subtle contrasts, spatiality and novel doublings of the Russians. Subject for another discussion, perhaps? We don't talk much of scoring here, do we? - more about varying interpretations thereof.

[EdgeleyRob]

I like 63/4 of Beethoven's symphonies,don't particularly care for 1,2 and the finale of 9 but I wouldn't make disparaging comments about them
I like all the piano and chamber music.

[Bryn]

Likes: all those he completed, very much including the final movement of the 9th. Barry Cooper's single movement of a putative 10th I find anyrthing but forward looking. Neither the Morris nor the Weller recording get even an occasional spin these days.

Dislikes: Not even the often misnamed 'Battle Symphony'. Good raucous fun.

[Petrushka]

I'm sorry, but the Beethoven symphonies are the absolute pinnacle of symphonic art; all musical history led up to them and musical history could never again be the same after them. To say that the glorious 2nd symphony 'has nothing to recommend it' and the 8th as 'a crude and shallow piece of work' is not what I would have expected to read on a forum such as this and seems to me to be more in the nature of a deliberate wind up job.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm sorry, but the Beethoven symphonies are the absolute pinnacle of symphonic art; all musical history led up to them and musical history could never again be the same after them. To say that the glorious 2nd symphony 'has nothing to recommend it' and the 8th as 'a crude and shallow piece of work' is not what I would have expected to read on a forum such as this and seems to me to be more in the nature of a deliberate wind up job.

And it's still only March 31st!

[Richard Barrett]

I'm sorry, but the Beethoven symphonies are the absolute pinnacle of symphonic art

- in your opinion.

To say that the glorious 2nd symphony 'has nothing to recommend it' and the 8th as 'a crude and shallow piece of work' is not what I would have expected to read on a forum such as this and seems to me to be more in the nature of a deliberate wind up job.

Actually my opinion of the no.8 was not so different from that until recently, and, although I must have heard no.2 numerous times I can't bring a single moment of it to mind at the moment so it obviously hasn't made that much impact. It is clear that Beethoven's symphonies are historically important in many ways, but so are many other pieces of music, from the Symphonie fantastique to Gesang der Jünglinge, without everyone having to (in the words of the OP) "actually LIKE" them...

[verismissimo]

This thread sent me back today to Konwitschny's 1963 Eroica with the Gewandhausorchester, and especially to the Funeral March.

Utterly gripping. From the first note.

[Beef Oven!]

I have no idea why Beethoven's siymphonies are of historical importance and I've never viewed them that way, believe it or not. But I will say that I enjoy them and love them as much as Bruckner's, Mahler's and Sibelius'. Especially 3-9.

[Conchis]

Sibleius is a lesser composer than Beethoven but I can listen to his 1-7 without interruption. I'm not able to do the same for the Beethoven symphonies, even though they are, genearlly speaking, 'greater' and 'more important' works.