Beethoven: 9 Symphonies (The Chamber Orchestra Of Europe, cond. Nikolaus Harnoncourt)
Don’t worry, you’re not going to get a real review of Joseph Harnoncourt’s interpretation of all of Beethoven’s symphonies here. You know me better than that. Not only do I not have the skills or knowledge to do such a review, you don’t want to read it.
But with no disc in my collection devoted to Beethoven, I had a pretty massive hole in my collection. I’d been meaning to fill it for some time, but I never knew quite where to start. The Fifth Symphony seemed like the obvious choice, but how would I pick among the hundreds of recordings? Besides, The Rest Is Noise kept making references to other symphonies of Beethoven’s, like the Third and, mostly, the Ninth. So I decided to take the plunge and just get one conductor’s and orchestra’s interpretation of all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies, which basically stand as the central pillar of Western music, surveying and casting shadows over all that came before and has come since.
One of the other reasons for me wanting to listen to this collection is that, as in The Rest Is Noise, people are always referring to Beethoven’s Xth Symphony as some kind of comparison to just about anything in classical music, and just referring to each number is supposed to conjure up all kinds of meaning, as it would if I said something like, say, “…reminiscent of Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction.” All of this left me feeling a bit left out because, although I knew my basics of the symphonies, I just wasn’t getting all the meaning behind the references to each numbered symphony.
Unfortunately I can’t say I’m any more enlightened in these discussions now than I was before. Despite my best attempts at learning these symphonies through weeks of osmosis, there are only a few melodies I could hum on command, though I have spent the last few weeks listening to a lot of very enjoyable music.
And so, as a service to my readers, I present a cheat sheet on Beethoven, his awe-inspiring symphonies, and the basics of what you’re “supposed” to know about them peppered with some of my takeaways. You should print this out and take it with you to cocktail parties and, of course, the symphony.
Overview: A symphony is a work of music played by a lot of instruments, hence the term “symphony orchestra” refers to one that is large enough to play symphonies, as opposed to, say, a “chamber orchestra.” Symphonies usually have four movements, but that’s hardly a strict rule (Beethoven’s Sixth had five). Beethoven redefined the symphony to be the central piece of an orchestral composer’s oeuvre. By the qualifying “orchestral composer,” I’m leaving out operatic composers like Wagner as well as Chopin, who wrote primarily for solo piano; these types of composers aren’t remembered primarily for their symphonies the way orchestral composers are. For most composers, though, symphonies are the equivalent of novels for authors.
The Symphony was established as an important form in the early Classical period (Beethoven was more late Classical) by the masters of that period: Mozart and Haydn. Mozart wrote 41 Symphonies (this number varies by source) and Haydn wrote over 100. Beethoven wrote nine, which is about the number written by all the important orchestral composers that followed. Beethoven broke free of the constraints of the form established by earlier composers and made the symphony say more: he made it bigger, longer, and more complicated, thereby also making it essentially impossible to write as many as Haydn or even Mozart did.
First: It’s in C major, a comfortable, clear key to our ears. It sounds very confident and straightforward.
Second: It’s a symphony. It’s good. I love the first movement.
Third: Titled “Eroica,” or “Heroic,” this is Beethoven’s first real triumph at setting up his own aesthetic and the beginnings of symphonic transformation. He had dedicated this to Napoleon, who he viewed as a friend of democracy, but tore up the dedication when he learned he had crowned himself Emperor and re-dedicated it to the “memory of a great man” or something like that. You can look it up.
Fourth: Somebody once described this as a slender maiden between two giants (the Third and the Fifth). You always have to mention that and it’s really memorable. I might even like the Fourth more than the Third. It’s very good.
Fifth: Possibly the most famous piece of music in the Western world, if not the entire world. It’s the buh buh buh BUMMMM one. It’s famous for a reason, as it is brilliance in sonic form. You start to hear some prominent Romantic melodies here. (The Romantic period would follow the Classical period.)
Sixth: The “Pastoral” symphony. This is very Romantic and throws away a lot of the Classical form as it moves to five movements, features more of a tone-poem style where it’s not necessarily thematic-development-driven but is instead made up of sounds representing nature. There’s wind and storms and rivers and frogs and birds…very Romantic. I find it boring in a lot of places, but it’s obviously a very important piece. This was written simultaneously with the Fifth and I get the feeling that Beethoven wrote this because the Fifth was such mastery that he had to try something new, like he recognized what a masterpiece the Fifth was so started on something completely different.
Seventh: Kind of a bipolar symphony with extremely fast, chaotic parts as well as slow, nearly languishing moments. Its highs are very high and its lows are very low.
Eighth: Kind of a throwback to the Classical form here. The scherzo (fast and light) movement is almost silly.
Ninth: The “Choral” symphony. You’ve heard this one, too, as its final movement, with chorus singing the “Ode To Joy,” is often featured in movies. (If you don’t believe me, listen to it here.) It’s over an hour long. The Fifth and Ninth are widely considered Beethoven’s crowning achievements. I prefer the Fifth, but this symphony is right behind it and was a much bigger reach in terms of redefining what could be done not only with a symphony, but with sound.
There you go. You now know as much about Beethoven and his symphonies as I do. Oh, and he was kind of a jerk, didn’t have much success with the ladies, and he grew deaf over the course of his life, reaching complete deafness by the time he wrote the Ninth.
Rating: 4
Mixers: Symphony 5, Movements 1 and 4; Symphony 9, Movement 3
Non-keepers: Symphony 1, Movement 2; Symphony 4, Movement 2; Symphony 6, Movements 1, 3, and 4; Symphony 8, Movements 2, 3, and 4
Filed Between: Beelzebubs (Gilding!) and Belladonna (Belladona)
Tags: 1800, 1803, 1805, 1807, 1808, 1813, 1824, 1990, 1991, 4 lunchboxes, CD reviews, classical, music