Word: beethovens
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...years to raising a small colony of snakes in a goldfish tank in the living room. He is related to uncribbed spirits and surrounded by live-in transients. These errant moles of home industry manufacture and explode Fourth-of-July fireworks unperiodically, do ostrichy parodies of ballet, and massacre Beethoven on the xylophone. It does not dawn...
...have failed to mention two of the film's outstanding accomplishments: the luminous, plastic photography of Raoul Coutard. Godard's cameraman on his ten films, beginning with Breathless (1961); and the score, which owes its beauty to Beethoven's string quarters and its effectiveness to Godard's superb timing. I've also omitted the film's verbalism. Signs and the printed word play a key part in most Godard films, from the Bogart poster of Breathless to the flashing neon lights of Alphaville, and they crop up again and again in The Married Woman. But why they are used...
Taken as a whole, the Beethoven went well. The fact that the opening fifth of the first movement was noticeably out of tune was soon forgotten; for the rest of the movement, which I remembered as a sleepy and amorphous prelude to the Scherzo, was exciting to listen to. The orchestra was on its toes, and Leinsdorf was in control as he should have been-though he tended to make too much of certain of the important cello passages...
...chorus. As could only have been expected from three of Boston's best choral groups, they performed well. The blend was good (they sang as sections, not as individuals), and the diction was adequate, though I doubt they could have given more. Since every singer dreams of performing in Beethoven's Ninth, it is not surprising that the chorus's contribution was gusty and exuberant...
...felt strange to be sitting in Symphony Hall, listening to Leinsdorf conduct the BSO, and hearing bad blend and faulty intonation even occasionally. The total effect of the Beethoven was exhilarating, but I can't help wondering, in retrospect, whether my standards are too high (after all, the players are only human), or whether it could indeed have been better. When the Aristocrat of Orchestras falls down on the job, what values are sacred...