Word: beethovens
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...athletes in the center of the field. The stand was draped in black, and for the first time in Olympic history the flags of 122 competing nations and the Olympic flag flew at half-staff. Munich's Philharmonic orchestra played the sad strains of the funeral movement of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. Declared West Germany's President Gustav Heinemann: "We stand helpless before a truly despicable...
...Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras (1961). These performances flanked a rare public appearance by Fromm in which he pleaded eloquently for better integration of contemporary and traditional music rather than a mere "busing of indiscriminately chosen new music to the halls of Brahms and Beethoven...
...program opened with the Beethoven Sonata in B-flat, op. 22, in the beginning of which the performer's nervousness was noticeable. But by the time the exposition of the first movement was repeated, things were under control, and there followed a structurally clairvoyant performance, emphasizing both the subtle interrelationships and the marked contrasts inherent in the composer's material. In the second movement, I felt that so many gentle hesitations before sforzandi and cadences, in conjunction with a tempo leaning toward the slow side, tended to restrict the flow. However, these elements of rubato, although not to my taste...
...Beethoven was the best-played composition of the evening. One must note, however, that op. 74 is not one of The Late Quartets, and the somewhat ponderous earnestness in which it was performed was sometimes in conflict with the character of the work, which is frequently effervescent or hauntingly lyrical. The harmonically and melodically rich second movement was overphrased; by the time we arrived at the second theme, so much had been done in the way of nuance that there was nothing left for the rest of the movement--which almost bogged down. The quartet played best in the scherzo...
...technical facility (which, I reiterate, was largely exemplary). It is a matter of conception. To cries of "purist" and "unimportant details" which may be provoked by the foregoing. I respond: it depends on how you hear things. Music is both feeling and idea--especially in the periods of Haydn, Beethoven, and Berg. The problem obviously in not an easy one; as Szell put it, "the borderline is very thin between clarity and coolness, self-discipline and severity." Nevertheless, to appeal only to the listener's 'gut reactions,' (however tastefully) and his ability to discern technical proficiency, is to offer, unnecessarily...