[5/21/2011] Preview: Otto Klemperer makes us ponder how fast Beethoven's peasants dance (continued)

Otto Klemperer

I THOUGHT WE'D LISTEN FIRST . . .

. . . to our conductors from last night's Beethoven-Berlioz country outings, Eugene Ormandy and André Cluytens, serving up traditionally paced performances. Ormandy's peasants indeed dance at quite a lively clip. (This performance is significantly shorter than the others because Ormandy bypasses a marked repeat of essentially the whole little movement. Klemperer did the same thing in concert, or at least he did in the two live performances of his of the Pastoral I have, which both postdate the recording.)

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68 (Pastoral):
iii. Merry Gathering of Peasants: Allegro

Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded Jan. 26, 1966
Berlin Philharmonic, André Cluytens, cond. EMI, recorded March 1960
Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded October 1957

Since repeated hearings of Beethoven's little peasants' dance doesn't add up to all that much music, even for a "preview," I thought we'd combine it with last night's "Scene by the Brook" and then carry forward into the music to which the "Merry Gathering of Peasants" leads without interruption, the "Thunderstorm," though for tonight we'll stop short of the final "Thanksgiving" into which the storm is supposed to lead without interruption.

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68 (Pastoral):
ii. Scene by the Brook: Andante molto moto
iii. Merry Gathering of Peasants: Allegro
iv. Thunderstorm: Allegro

Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. DG, recorded February 1962
[Note: I chose this Karajan recording, from the 1961-62 DG Beethoven symphony cycle that he seems to me to have produced with extraordinary concentration, partly because I like it a lot, and partly because just recently I saw it singled out for revulsion by a writer who was simultaneously recommending a number of recordings that struck me as nondescript at best. As I recall, he complained of the Karajan performance being bloated and sluggish. Huh?]


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

This seems the right time of year for the Pastoral Symphony, so that's our entire agenda.


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