Felix Delbruck keeps asking me these difficult questions:

>Bob, what is it that makes you like no 7 least? Also, what makes you
>prefer no. 5 to no. 3?

I am still trying to sort out the offending sugary sweet Mozart movements
for you Felix.

Regarding the Beethoven.  It's a couple of years since I heard the seventh.
So I don't recall much about it except I didn't like it much.  Actually, I
seem to remember that it's a retrograde step for B a typical classical
symphony somewhat Motzartian.  But, wait, my memory may be failing me here.

Five versus three is easier to answer I think.  Maybe, there's an element
here of "that's what I'm supposed to think" in the back of my mind but I'll
try and analyse it for you regardless.

I love the Haydn Sturm Und Drang works because of the raw emotion on
display particularly La Passione and La Trauer.  The same goes for Brahms'
first symphony and piano concerto.

Now, as has been noted many times B's fifth is a symphony that utilises
major and minor keys to create emotional stress.  It also contains
ambiguities that lead to emotional stress.  Am I right in thinking that
the first subject in the first movement is never properly resolved?

It has, also, been described as a through work, indeed the first through
work.  Meaning, that the movements are all interrelated.  Unlike, say, a
classical work where the minuet, for instance (and example), often adds
little but light relief (Though of course as every schoolboy should know
Haydn changed all that).

ASIDE
Whether or not B's 5 is the first through work is a matter of some debate.
The Musicologist Professor James Webster cites Haydn's symphony no 45 "The
Farewell" as the first through work.  He has a poweful case as anyone who
cares to listen to it and several other of H's Sturm Und Drang symphonies
will soon realise (See sleeve notes in Hogwood's Haydn series and Webster'
writings).  In fact Professor Webster believes that for this reason alone
Haydn should be regarded as Beethoven's equal.  When I add my own arguments
to this then I find Haydn as Beethoven's superior and everybody else's, of
course.) END OF ASIDE

So B's 5 uses several devices to create emotional stress and take us on
what has been described (by me) as a musical journey.

Conversely the Eroica whilst it is an heroic work is still a straightford
classical symphony.  There is no musical journey of the type I have
described.  Indeed, this is a work that is on a cheerfull emotional level
throughout.

Don't get me wrong.  I do like the Eroica a lot and will play it often when
I am in the right mood.

But, I like musical journeys and I enjoy the emotinal stress and strain
encountered on the way.  Hence, I prefer the fifth over the third.
Further, to give you even more value for your question here, hence I
prefer Haydn over Mozart.

Also, and perhaps more controversially, I regard symphonies that can
evoke an emotional response as a higher form of art than other symphonies
regardless of their contrapuntal content or other musical considerations.

I listen to music to be moved in some way.

Bob Draper
All ideas expressed are of course IMHO
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