Mats Norrman ([log in to unmask]) wrote:


Deryk Barker [[log in to unmask]] wrote:
>
>>Stirling Newberry ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
>>
>>>A fine reviewer gives both these objective details of the performance,
>>>and combines them with judgement.  That Barenboim follows the traditional
>>>tempi and performance practice of Beethoven is an objective observation,
>>
>>Really? We know that much about how Beethoven performed his own music do
>>we?
>
>We have eyewithnesses.  And eyewithnesses general observations from the
>time of early recording are the same as we have on early recordings, what
>I said in some recent posts which nobody seemed to take interest in.  So
>if some persons of equal musical dignity from Beethovens time spoke, isn't
>that a good indication?

It might be a good *indication* but if all that scholarship can still
result in radically different tempos for the alla marcia in the 9th
(Norrington/Hogdoowd/Gardiner) I'm not convinced it tells us all we need
to know.

In connection with which:

   The symphony would be all the better - it lasts a whole hour - if
   Beethoven could reconcile himself to making some cuts in it and to
   bringing to the score more light, clarity and unity.

from a contemporary review in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.  "A
whole hour"? The only recording I know that last a whole hour is Giulini's
Sony and that's a *very* slow performance, with tempos far from what were
supposed to be the norm in Beethoven's time.

Now this is not the matter of a tiny discrepancy: Gardiner takes 50
minutes, Hogwood and Norrington between 45 and 46.  Three HIP performances
of impeccable credential with all repeats observed, yet they come in and
between 16 and 25% under the hour.

Deryk Barker
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