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 [log in to unmask]