Word: beethovens
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...concluding selection, Beethoven's Septet in E-Flat, represents its creator in his wittiest and most lyrical vein. While retaining features of the older divertimento (especially in the prominent violin part), it also looks forward to the work of later composers--Mendelssohn must have known the scherzo well. Despite a few lapses in intonation, the performers gave all the energy and sparkle the septet demands, and it brought an appropriately enthusiastic response from the audience...
...Beethoven: Bagatelles (Grant Johannesen; Concert Hall). Into these "trifles," Beethoven poured some of his loftiest imaginings and fiercest humors. The Johannesen performance covers 26 numbers. On a Cook LP, Pianist Leonid Hambro plays half a dozen of the late Bagatelles, together with Beethoven's powerful 32 Variations in C Minor. Both performances are first-rate...
...Beethoven: Missa Solemnis (Robert Shaw Chorale, NBC Symphony and soloists conducted by Arturo Toscanini; Victor, 2 LPs). Beethoven's most massive vocal work. Cruelly demanding on both singers and listeners, it was performed only once during his lifetime. It is no less demanding today, and some of the strain shows in this version. The Maestro gives it a feeling of magnificent urgency despite the fact that the soloists sound faint and distant...
...Harvard ('17), Sam turned his musical talent into Hasty Pudding shows-tunes by Sears, words by Robert Sherwood. The pair worked in a musty office, where young Sherwood hung his portrait among those of the great poets, while Sam's was flanked by pictures of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart. Sam can still pound out lively barroom piano music, but with maturity, he has acquired a greater fancy for collecting old cars and gold toothpicks...
Pianist Backhaus, square-jawed and bulky, played five sonatas by Beethoven with the virility and technique of a man half his age. He began with the tried & true Pathétique, swirled through the Tempest, rippled through Les Adieux, produced a playful Opus 79 and summed everything up with a lofty performance of Opus III. "One of the greatest evenings ... of Beethoven's piano music [in a quarter century]," raved the New York Times's Olin Downes. "Mr. Backhaus was young with Beethoven...