Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Folksong Settings [Arrangements de Chants Populaires]

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Citing Dr. L. Lockwood:

"Beethoven initiated an agreement [between 1809-20] with the ambitious Scottish publisher G. Thomson to compose settings of folk songs--Scottish, Irish, English, and, later, Continental songs in many languages, including German, Danish, Tyrolean [Austrian-dialect], Polish, Spanish, Russian, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, and Swiss-dialect.

These compositions add up to a very large body of works, and Beethoven took them much more seriously than later [critics] have realized. Many are of real musical interest.

Most are for solo voice, either soprano or tenor, with full-scale accompaniments for piano trio.

Filled with striking moments, these little pieces show Beethoven working with the special modal and regional inflections of folk song; conceivably, these inflections and odd tonal twists formed part of their attraction for him."
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These disks won all kinds of awards when first issued. Elsewhere Amazon is selling the original CDs for $133. They are worth that price. At the price here they are a steal. If you like Beethoven and/or folk songs you will not go wrong. As Gramophone puts it, listening to these lifts the spirits.

I lead with "garbage in, garbage out" not to suggest that the folk songs which LvB arranged are garbage, but to remind you that source materials matter, a lot. (To the contrary regarding the original material, I like the kind of music he bothered to work with.) For all the effort which LvB put into these arrangements; for all the artistry he tried to apply; for all his pride in workmanship; these are essentially the kinds of songs you might hear someone like John McCormack sing. Think Stephen Foster.

Not that there's anything wrong with Stephen Foster, but I bet that when you want to listen to LvB you want to listen to LvB, and when you want to listen to Stephen Foster, you want to listen to Stephen Foster. Or whoever... I'm just using him as an example, there's no Stephen Foster here.

The performances are all fine on this set, but it's a curiosity. Just a curiosity. I wouldn't buy this unless you're a "completist" and really want everything LvB did. This is just not for me - - too grounded in the folk element, nothing close to leider or art song.

I honestly believe that if you're interested in better music of this ilk, you'll be better off going to something closer to the original sources, by respected singers in these genres. Such as Jean Redpath: she's a singer from Scotland (now living in the US) who did a wonderful collection of songs by Robert Burns. They're intelligently set, and they don't suffer from the LvB brand. They're a bit more humble, but they sound so much more true.