Word: beethovens
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Compared to the neat way American record companies have produced Mozart symphonies and Beethoven quartets in a series of performances by the recognized authorities in those fields, the treatment of Romantic piano music has been little short of chaotic. In this extraordinarily rich and varied field, there has been no planning, no skillful choice of works to be recorded, and little utilization of the pianists...
Boston Symphony (Tues. 9:30 p.m., ABC). Serge Koussevitzky conducts Ravel's Ma Mère l'Oye; Beethoven's Symphony...
Works by three Germanic masters, Bach, Hindemith, and Beethoven were the meaty substance of this first program. Bach's First Brandenburg Concerto, as rendered by Dr. Koussevitzky, lacks the lightness and intimacy preferred by these familiar with the old Buseh recording; however the lush Boston reading found as much life and meaning in this music as its first performers must have in 1721. The horn and oboe soles, particularly in the irrepressible third minuet trio, were superlative...
Unfortunately, the closing work, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, not heard in Symphony Hall since 1945, seemed almost anti-climactic. The reading was quite straightforward and warm, outside of an unnecessarily funereal second movement, and great care was spent on fine details; but the fire and urgency that sweep everything before them when Toscanini plays this favorite, were somehow lacking...
...like Beethoven; what does that make me -the man on the horse...