Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
Again as I'll explain tomorrow, it was a performance conducted by the legendary cellist-conductor Pablo Casals that set me thinking -- once again -- about these Beethoven symphonic introductions, but not one of the ones we're sampling here, which all date from the 1969 Marlboro Festival, when the maestro conducted all but the most grandiose of the Beethoven symphonies (Nos. 3, 5, and 9). No, the performance I was listening to is a live one from ten years earlier, when Don Pablo was a mere 82.
No, that's not a typo. When our recordings were made, he was 92. And while the performances sometimes may leave certain things to be desired, they're still pretty extraordinary for their intensity and singing quality. Both the reduced-orchestra format (about 50 players, the usual Marlboro mix of chamber-music-loving veterans and rising professionals -- the rosters are all identified in the booklets, and they're kind of jaw-dropping) and Casals's impassioned shaping allow the music to open up and breathe, with a special radiance in the wind lines (again, those parts were manned by some of the best wind players in the country.
For comparison, to remind ourselves that Beethoven could equally well get right down to symphonic work, I've included with the complete first movements below those of the two other symphonies Casals recorded, the Pastoral, No. 6, which we heard not that long ago, and No. 8. Finally, to simplify the credits, let's stipulate at the outset that all the performances here are by the Marlboro Festival Orchestra conducted by Pablo Casals, recorded in 1969 except for 8 was recorded earlier (and issued around the time of the maestro's 90th birthday), released in various forms on the sequential Columbia/CBS/Sony labels. They seem to be all obtainble, at least in downloadable form: Nos. 1 and 6, No. 2 (with the Egmont Overture and Brahms's Haydn Variations), No. 4 (with Schubert's Fifth Symphony), and Nos. 7 and 8.
LET'S PROCEED WITH THE FOUR FORMAL
INTRODUCTIONS TO BEETHOVEN SYMPHONIES
Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21:
i. Adagio molto (introduction only)
Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 36:
i. Adagio molto (introduction only)
Symphony No. 4 in B-flat, Op. 60:
i. Adagio (introduction only)
Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92:
i. Poco sostenuto (introduction only)
THE COMPLETE FIRST MOVEMENTS
OF THE ABOVE SYMPHONIES
The purpose of this preview truly was to hear these four symphonic introductions as a group, to set us up for tomorrow's main post. But the idea isn't to tease you mercilessly. A good part of the function of these introductions, after all, is to set us up -- and here I mean set us up in multiple senses -- for the main bodies of the movements they introduce, and this purpose is defeated if we don't actually get to hear those movements.
So, at the risk of bursting the reasonable bounds of a "preview," and understanding that this is a listening option that oversteps tonight's official agenda, I feel obliged to furnish the full first movements, sticking with the Casals-Marlboro performances.
Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21:
i. Adagio molto . . . Allegro con brio
Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 36:
i. Adagio molto . . . Allegro con brio
Symphony No. 4 in B-flat, Op. 60:
i. Adagio . . . Allegro vivace
Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92:
i. Poco sostenuto . . . Vivace
NOW FOR THE SYMPHONIES IN OUR GROUP
WITHOUT FORMAL INTRODUCTIONS
We start with the Pastoral, which may briefly sound as if the first phrase is a "slow introduction," but it becomes clear quickly enough that in fact it's part of the main theme.
Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68:
i. Allegro ma non troppo
And finally --
Symphony No. 8 in F, Op. 93:
i. Allegro vivace e con brio
ii. Allegretto scherzando
iii. Tempo di Menuetto
iv. Allegro vivace
You've probably noticed that I've slipped in not just the whole of the first movement but the darned whole of the Eighth Symphony. It was like this: I had to dub the first movement from LP anyway (I don't have the CD of Casals's Nos. 7 and 8, and while I'd saved myself the hassle by spending the two bucks to download the first movement of No. 7, I was damned if I was going to shelling out even more for the first movement of No. 8), and once I'd started the transfer going, I kind of didn't feel like stoping it. Special treat: the horns in the Trio at 2:19 of the Tempo di Menuetto. (Note, by the way, that this movement is a clear throwback on Beethoven's part, since by the Eighth Symphony he had clearly switched from the older-fashioned minuet to scherzos. Among his symphonies only No. 1 has a minuet; all the others have scherzos.)
IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST
You'll hear why, specifically, we've been listening to these spellbinding introductions.
RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST
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