Beethoven 2 X 4

This montage from our Podcast Vault revisits a post from 17 Feb 2012. It can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/Beethoven2X4

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Beethoven will celebrate his 250^th birthday next year, and already many organizations have dubbed the 2019-20 season a Beethoven Year.  Here on our platforms, we are planning lots of Beethoven next year, primarily on the Tuesday Blog. Later this month, we will be sharing a pair of montages dedicated to his music, one of which will include his second piano concerto and a version of his Second symphony for piano trio.

This week’s selection from the Podcast Vault is our “Beethoven 2 X 4” podcast, with four Beethoven works for orchestra, including his second and fourth symphonies.

Also included in this montage is a rather brisk interpretation of the Coriolan overture by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Maybe because he was French and such a fabulous conductor of French music, Charles Munch never got the respect he deserved as a conductor of German music. That said, Munch actually was born in Alsace (which was under German occupation then and until World War I), and throughout his career he championed German music. Also, Munch got his real start as a musician by playing First Violin in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra under no less a conducting giant than the legendary Wilhelm Furtwaengler ... not a bad way to learn the German repertory!

Notwithstanding this pedigree, Munch's Beethoven sounds more like the Beethoven of Furtwaengler's great rival Toscanini: tempi are quick, articulation is brilliant, accents are strong, and rhythms are sharply projected.

As this week’s bonus track, I added here a YouTube clip of Munch conducting the Eroica symphony. The original (stereo) recording dates from 1957; the Boston orchestra plays superlatively well for its much-loved conductor, but anyone who loves exciting Beethoven playing will probably enjoy this performance.

I think you will (still) live this music too.