"Winged Victory in Music"
02/01/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The voices of the Norrington haters are so loud and scratchy as to call into question whether they have listened to the recordings and read the scores - or are merely fuming and fulminating over the rise of new ideas. New ideas frighten, the way these new ideas of Beethoven's frightened academics in the Paris Conservatoire, who declared that "such music ought not to be written". And obviously the anti-Norringotonians, with their devotion to misreading the scores, feel it ought not be be played as it was composed.The "Eroica" symphony was hailed at its premiere, and remained Beethoven's favorite symphony until he composed his 9th. And yet it rapidly became a work which evinced fear among instrumentalists. There were other long symphonies at the time, there were others with more noise and thumping, with more instruments. There were even other symphonies that declared that they had programs - explicit or implied. Why then does this symphony seem radical now? Because it gathered a host of innovations - melodic themes worthy of Mozart, working out worthy of Haydn - and fused them with a poetical sense that matched the temper of the age of Byron and Coleridge, Schiller and Goethe.The symphony has a first movement which is the hero's exploits on earth. Here Norrington gives us a striding Napolean - the original model of the symphony - a Napolean who is astride a horse, as David painted him. What differs between this perfromance and others? Older performances must both schmaltz out the theme, and simultaneously give short shrift to the rhythm. The orchestra becomes a merely milling mob in all to many of them. Here it is a chorous, a greek chorous which chants. Because of the pulling and teasing which traditional performance practice requires - the great symmetry is lost, the sections of the Allegro - Exposition, Development in two parts and Recapitulation become 4 equal sections, and the Development is an Allegro within an Allegro - again with four equal sections. Here they balance, elsewhere this structure is lost.The next movement is a funeral march. But all to often in older styles it becomes a sentimental reminder - people hearing over the radio that their president is dead. Norrington's pace is a march, it is the funeral itself, hot with sweat and tears and the scent of huddled grief and horsemen taut in line. The core section is the series of re-enterances of the theme, the final laying to rest of the body - followed by the out pouring of grief itself.What follows the death of a hero? Why is this not a two movement work? Beethoven in Norrington's hands has an answer - the light scherzo becomes the hero's story spreading swift as thought through the world. The sharp bowing of the strings and ressonance of the winds become roughness of the tale.There follows the finale - a set of variations - each a progressive refinement. Beethoven used this theme in a ballet on Prometheus. It is not the hero which is Promethean - it is the fire let loose on the world. Again - tempo is all. There is no heavy thudding beat to break the structure into swellings and shoutings, but a driven idea.Perhaps old ears cannot bear the idea that classical music can be sublime and sharp - hoping instead for acres of sweet strings to soothe the nerves. But for those who are not yet hardened to a rocking chair Beethoven - here he is."
My ears differ!
Dale C. Cook | Woodville, MA USA | 10/18/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Everyone is entitled to an opinion; mine is that the Norrington recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies are a delight! (For the record, I also own and enjoy the Bruno Walter recordings and the Toscanini version of the 3rd.) Beethoven was a mere lad of 23 when the 3rd was published (1803), full of passionate idealism and hero worship. That enthusiasm comes through in the true tempos a lot better than the more traditional pacing. Listen to the last few mintues of the opening movement of the 3rd. The lilting Viennese folk melodies sing through the thinner orchestration. I've even come to prefer the crisp attack of the ancient typanni to the modern overwhelming booming. Give a listen and form your own conclusion. Better still own more than one version as I do!"
Accurate immaculate winners!
Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 09/21/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The invective directed against Roger Norrington and the scorn poured on his recordings of Beethoven's symphonies by many critics seem to me to be like the proverbial pointing finger which leaves three others pointing back at the person pointing: I came to Beethoven without a background in romantic interpretation, having immersed myself over the years in the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, and Norrington's interpretation was, for me, an immediate winner, opening my eyes to the beauties and complexities of Beethoven but at the same time showing me how this music had originated with someone who had 'received Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands'. Compared with other Beethoven interpretations (von Karajan, Solti), Norrington is obviously quite a lot faster in most movements, but that is really almost incidental (and, as he is meticulously following Beethoven's or Czerny's metronome marks, probably much nearer to what Beethoven actually intended); it is not the tempi that are important but the interpretative statement. And that is here, if I understand Norrington rightly, that Beethoven was a brilliant young genius who developed the symphony in unheard-of ways using the means available to him at the time. So Norrington has period instruments with their softer sound, but he also re-seats the orchestra in the way that Beethoven himself would have done, with the second violins sitting on the right, exchanging places so to speak with the celli and the double basses who are placed centre-left. Thus anyone who cares to listen (I mean really listen!) to this music can hear in incredible detail exactly what is going on, including the question-and-answer game going on between the two blocks of violins. The fast tempi are used both to give the music a dancing feel about it and to show Beethoven's energy and vivaciousness. When he composed Symphonies 1 and 3 he was only 30 and 34 years old respectively, not an old man with a grudge as one might suspect from some interpretations! It would go too far to comment on individual moments of the music (which I think one can enjoy without having a detailed 'programme' sketched out - I rather doubt that Beethoven wanted to write 'programme music'!), all anyone needs to do is to put a set of headphones on and concentrate on this beautiful, beautiful sound! I should add, I suppose, that the recordings were made by EMI at London's Abbey Road studios and are absolutely immaculate. The only real alternative to Norrington is, in my eyes, John Eliot Gardiner's interpretation, but in the end both are pretty similar in concept, despite differing over detail."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1