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June 18, 2010 - 2:39pm
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Beethoven 9th
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Was it as good as I expect it was?
If only home audio could do all that!
Elk
As you guessed i wrote the impossible dream thread after getting back from this concert.
I admit in hindsight that it was a bit rash to write that thread and stir up the pot but what the heck !!
When i got back into hifi a few years back i started out looking for a hifi system that would reproduce the sound of live rock music because I had fallen out of love with music a little bit and thought i just was getting more mature and needed better sound. Well afetr trying out various systems and options i eventually came to the realisation that i was actually searching for something more. I found this in classical music, all my life i had basically dismissed classical as something for old boring farts with no energy. Well after moving from the UK to US this put directly into CSO country, ive quickly come to appreciate classical music at a depth ive never been with rock. Through advice on here and my own research ive done a total 180 and now listen to 80% classical. Experiences like Pictures, Mahler 2, Tchaikovsky Piano #1, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin, Denis Matsuev have opened my life to wonderful things.
The reason that im rambling on is the effect that the 9th live had on me, i had heard 2,3,5 & 8 in previous weeks, 3 was disappointing, 8 was good, 5 was outstanding, 2 was a brilliant surprise. None of these prepared me for the 9th, when you have spent 12 months listening intently to a peice and then hear it live its a moving thing. Im no expert but Haitink seems to have an organic link to the musicians, its like the music comes alive. There were times when the cellos didnt make music, the best way i can describe it is that they throbbed !!! it was like the whole orchestra was alive and moving. I heard so much in the last movement, an example being that they were in absolute full belt and all i could focus on for a few seconds was a traingle being played quietly, it sounded to me like a church bell. You can feel Beethovens spirit and anger in the music, im not sure if its meant to be or not but there is a lot of anger and angst in the peice and Haitink seems to be able to bring it out. Its this that i was trying to bring out im my rant about hifi.
I dont know if any of this makes sense or if to someone more experienced it sounds like beginners waffle !!
Alan
I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying following your voyage of discovery, Alan.
My father was a huge classical music lover and so classical has always been part of my life since, literally, before I was born. You see he had this theory that if I repeatedly heard a piece of music while in the womb I would always subconsciously associate it with security and it could then be used as a soporific later in life*. Interestingly he chose, not the arguably obvious Wiegenlied, but one of Brahms' Hungarian Dances and played it almost daily throughout my gestation. Although my mother's account of the successfulness of this technique differs somewhat from my father's, I still love the piece to this day.
I can vividly remember the exact moment and circumstances of my discovery of so many pieces, Danse Macabre, Swan Lake, Der Tod und das M
I can only listen to the LSO Live version in Hybrid SACD. I know it pales next to the real thing, but Haitink and the London Symphony Chorus/Orchestra are pretty impressive, anyway.
The 9th is highly regarded as a "landmark" symphony. A liner note states "The deaf composer had to be turned around to see the reaction of the awestruck audience at the premiere."
If you liked Haitink in the LVB, you should hear the complete set of Liszt tone poems that he did for Philips years ago. Les Preludes is absolute killer!
I am sorry to have missed that festival this time of the year. But I am glad I ran into this information here at www.stereophile.com
The best recording of the 9th that I have ever heard is the one by Peter Maag and the Orchestra de Padova y Del Veneto (ARTS 47248).
I have never heard such well-recorded soloists, for one thing, and the sound of the San Antonio cathedral it was recorded in in Padua is excellent. The sound quality could not be improved on.
The orchestra is smaller than what has been used for most modern recordings, but more to the authentic scale of Beethoven's time.
The tenor soloist is also named Vanderstene, and he sounds great on my Vandersteen speakers...rofl.