R4 11.30 am today - How to Play . . . Beethoven's Symphony No. 7

[Pianorak]

R4 - 11.30 am - Th 27/12/2018

How to Play . . . Beethoven's Symphony No. 7

We eavesdrop on rehearsals as world famous conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Southbank Sinfonia prepare for a performance Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 7. They give us their insiders' perspective on this celebrated music and show how they work together to make this 200-year-old masterpiece come alive in the concert hall. Sir Roger Norrington shares his experiences of conducting orchestras in Beethoven over the last 50 years, and Erica Buurman looks at what inspired the famously grumpy composer to produce his most joyful symphony yet.

[oddoneout]

This was the kind of thing I was expecting from the 'Inside Music' slot on R3 - so why does it turn up on R4? Not saying R4 shouldn't have such programmes but it does sometimes seem as if they get them instead of R3 rather than as well as.

[Bryn]

This was the kind of thing I was expecting from the 'Inside Music' slot on R3 - so why does it turn up on R4? Not saying R4 shouldn't have such programmes but it does sometimes seem as if they get them instead of R3 rather than as well as.

Hmm. The claim, during the programme, that Beethoven was deaf when he wrote the Fifth, is, to say the least, misleading. He had started to lose the high notes but was able to hear much of the lower registers. This also applied at the time of the Seventh, though there had been further loss of the upper frequencies. I would have hoped for better from such a programme. Lots of interesting stuff in it though.

[DracoM]

Yes, heard it.....

BUT if we get both Ashkenazy and Norrington conducting and each taking different lines in it - which we did - the audience in the end [well, THIS listener] struggled to know exactly which extracts were being conducted by which conductor.

Norrington made typically precise and acerbic comments on how it should be / had to be done, but were all the extracts that preceded and followed his statements those from the Stuttgart band, or........Ashkenazy's with the Sinfonia? We heard good stuff from Ashkenazy telling the orchestra what he wanted and then playing straight into it fairly obvious from the recorded rehearsal session, but........?

Interesting, but if you wanted to know exactly what, from extracts transmitted, each conductor was aiming at, a bit less clear.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Meanwhile on Radio 3, Essential Classics was continuing not to educate us, with its tedious following of an ill-chosen path.

Well done, Radio 4.

[oddoneout]

Hmm. The claim, during the programme, that Beethoven was deaf when he wrote the Fifth, is, to say the least, misleading. He had started to lose the high notes but was able to hear much of the lower registers. This also applied at the time of the Seventh, though there had been further loss of the upper frequencies. I would have hoped for better from such a programme. Lots of interesting stuff in it though.

I should perhaps have clarified that I was commenting on the premise of the programme rather than having heard it.