Thread: Best Beethoven symphonies

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Originally Posted by neoshredder

Skip the first movement and the 5th Symphony sounds better. I love the ending of Symphony 5.

Why do you hate the 1st mvt of his 5th?

7 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 9 — 8 — 2 — 1

First place is an easy call, after that it's harder. How do you put any of them at the end of the list?

Originally Posted by neoshredder

Skip the first movement and the 5th Symphony sounds better.

Yes, nothing improves a symphony like destroying its whole sense of form, balance and coherence. Seriously?

I've listened to the 5th at least 30 times, rehearsed and played a couple of movements in a rubbish youth orchestra and grown up with the same pop-culture bastardisations that everyone else has and the opening movement still comes up fresh for me. I don't understand the problem. Beethoven's 5th is above cliche.

Originally Posted by neoshredder

Skip the first movement and the 5th Symphony sounds better. I love the ending of Symphony 5.

Yes, I have done this a couple of times and it works well. A different flavour.

Originally Posted by jalex

Yes, nothing improves a symphony like destroying its whole sense of form, balance and coherence. Seriously?

I've listened to the 5th at least 30 times, rehearsed and played a couple of movements in a rubbish youth orchestra and grown up with the same pop-culture bastardisations that everyone else has and the opening movement still comes up fresh for me. I don't understand the problem. Beethoven's 5th is above cliche.

I disagree. Way too popular. The other 3 movements are fresh though and better than the average movement of Beethoven's other Symphonies. But I've heard the first movement way too many times at this point.

Originally Posted by Ondine

Yes, I have done this a couple of times and it works well. A different flavour.

Perhaps it would be best to only play last movements---look how quickly you could play the whole lot !!

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and then the rest of them.

Originally Posted by neoshredder

I disagree. Way too popular. The other 3 movements are fresh though and better than the average movement of Beethoven's other Symphonies. But I've heard the first movement way too many times at this point.

The aggressive first Movement gives a huge contrast compared to the pretty peaceful 2nd movement.
That is the reason why i can't skip movements on symphonies.

Well I basically have the first movement memorized in my head. So I can easily recall the contrast without listening to it.

Originally Posted by ComposerOfAvantGarde

What I don't like about the fifth symphony is that each movement is quite good but as a whole they seem too unrelated to all be part of the same piece. It puts me off all the time.

What? The emotional arc over the 5th couldn't possibly be any clearer. It makes perfect sense as a whole.

This thread should be rechristened 'thread for making stupid comments about Beethoven's symphonies'.

Originally Posted by jalex

What? The emotional arc over the 5th couldn't possibly be any clearer. It makes perfect sense as a whole.

This thread should be rechristened 'thread for making stupid comments about Beethoven's symphonies'.

Just because they don't have the same opinion as yours, doesn't make it stupid. And before I got into Classical, I enjoyed the first movement a lot. But after 100 times of hearing it, I have no intereste in ever hearing it again. I guess you could say burnout.

Originally Posted by neoshredder

Just because they don't have the same opinion as yours, doesn't make it stupid.

No. That is not the reason the opinion is stupid. The reason is that Beethoven #5 is a symphony which has been pretty much universally admired by the greatest musical figures in history (and a whole bunch of intelligent non-musical figures) precisely for its formal perfection and structural unity, so it sounds absolutely ridiculous when some 14 year old starts trash-talking it in true pseudo-intellectual fashion on an internet forum.

And before I got into Classical, I enjoyed the first movement a lot. But after 100 times of hearing it, I have no intereste in ever hearing it again. I guess you could say burnout.

This does not mean it sounds better without the first movement. It doesn't make sense without the first movement. The second movement opens in such a way that no-one could possibly mistake it for the beginning of anything. The fourth movement is pointless unless the first movement is there; it exists to counterbalance the first movement.

6 is my personal favorite, though I've enjoyed them all tremendously.

The Karajan digital 9 is my favorite recording for the finally, Jose van Dam uniqueness is the main reason, this was my first recording of the work, making me bias perhaps.

The striking difference in the mood of the popular movement in the 7th puzzles me as to the whole of the work.

Originally Posted by jalex

No. That is not the reason the opinion is stupid. The reason is that Beethoven #5 is a symphony which has been pretty much universally admired by the greatest musical figures in history (and a whole bunch of intelligent non-musical figures) precisely for its formal perfection and structural unity, so it sounds absolutely ridiculous when some 14 year old starts trash-talking it in true pseudo-intellectual fashion on an internet forum.



This does not mean it sounds better without the first movement. It doesn't make sense without the first movement. The second movement opens in such a way that no-one could possibly mistake it for the beginning of anything. The fourth movement is pointless unless the first movement is there; it exists to counterbalance the first movement.

It's not that hard to notice the contrast between the movements if you've heard the first movement a 100 times. It just seems like a waste of time to go back to first movement again. I've had Beethoven's greatest hits for a good 10+ years. It's not Beethoven's fault that the first movement got so overplayed. I see nothing wrong with my opinion or CoAG's. And disrespecting CoAG for no reason other than his age as well.