Beethoven: Symphony No. 3- Eroica / How a Great Symphony was Written lecture (Bernstein Century)

Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Leonard Bernstein (Conductor, Performer), New York Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Leonard Bernstein
• Orchestra: New York Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Leonard Bernstein
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (February 16, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000I0W0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,833 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly stands out in Bernstein's Beethoven Discography, August 18, 2007

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dv_forever (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beethoven: Symphony No. 3- Eroica / How a Great Symphony was Written lecture (Bernstein Century) (Audio CD)

Leonard Bernstein recorded two complete Beethoven symphony cycles plus a final Ode to Freedom concert of the 9th Symphony, ( which was awful ), and a late 7th Symphony with the BSO. He also recorded multiple versions of the piano concertos. Furthermore, he recorded the epic Missa Solemnis and Fidelio. From all that and more, if you were to pick two recordings to view Bernstein in the best light as a Beethoven interpreter, it would be this New York Eroica and his string orchestra performances of two late string quartets, opus 131 and 135 with the Vienna Philharmonic.

This version of the Eroica can be seen as ahead of it's time but if you really look at it, you'll see that Toscanini already said everything Bernstein had to say decades before. However, that does not in any manner take away from Bernstein's outstanding interpretation here. You have to remember those old days with Klemperer's plodding methods. He is but one example, there must have been dozens of others at the time. Bernstein is a breath of fresh air, allowing the revolutionary aspects of the score to enfold without any mannered monumentalism stemming from the German Romantic school of Beethoven conducting.

Two conductors of the era were along with Bernstein heavily influenced by Toscanini's style. They were George Szell and Herbert von Karajan. Both Szell's and Karajan's versions of the Eroica in the early 1960's can be stacked up against this Bernstein version. I suggest you own all three to contrast. Of the three, it is Bernstein's performance that is most driven. Bernstein also takes the first movement exposition repeat unlike most conductors of that era.

The first movement enfolds majestically, with dramatic contrasts underlined and the air of inevitability ever present. The funeral march is dramatic but never ponderous. Sure, it lacks the merits of the grand Furtwangler performance from 1944 or Karajan's fine contemporary version but it is great, unlike the slower and lifeless recording Bernstein conducted for his Vienna cycle. The scherzo and the finale are also wonderful. The New York Philharmonic is out to impress and they do. It would be perhaps unkind to mention that the sound is mostly typical CBS stuff for the period. The strings sound fierce and somewhat rough during the climaxes but it's not the end of the world.

Coming from someone like me who is not a Bernstein fan, especially not of his Beethoven, I can say this recording has some unique merits. It takes the classic convictions of Arturo Toscanini and infuses the New York Philharmonic of the early 1960's with Toscaninian drive and structural sense along with Bernstein's charisma and passion. This performance stands the test of time. The lecture, "How a great symphony was written", which takes place after the symphony, is pedantic but worth a listen. Bernstein's enthusiasm for this great masterpiece is very apparent.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bernstein, the Teacher, January 3, 2000

By 

J. Buxton "cantabile" (Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: Symphony No. 3- Eroica / How a Great Symphony was Written lecture (Bernstein Century) (Audio CD)

This disc would be worthwhile if only for the "How a great symphony was written" lecture at the end. It is entertaining and educational. But fortunately we also receive a marvellous version of the 3rd Symphony in what is truly a great performance. Bernstein takes the first movement faster than usual with thrilling results, and it is clear much thought has gone into each movement. The codas at the end of the first and last movements are very moving. An indispensable disc in my opinion.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Benchmark Eroica, January 18, 2007

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John Parker Marmaro "gilfaethwy" (Spring Hill, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: Symphony No. 3- Eroica / How a Great Symphony was Written lecture (Bernstein Century) (Audio CD)

Few single works of art have assumed so crucial a role -- crucial in the etymological sense, of being "at the crux"-- as Beethoven's Third Symphony. It was one of the greatest leaps forward in the entire history, not only of compostion, but in the arts in general. Yet on examining the symphony, its revolutionary nature is bodied forth in a myriad of smaller touches and a handful of huge masterstrokes. It was the longest symphony written to that date by a considerable margin. Though its scoring was quite conventional-- strings, pairs of flutes, oboes, bassoons, clarinets, trumpets, timpani, and three horns (Mozart and Haydn both had used more than two horns occasionally before), it was how Beethoven deployed them that was revolutionary. The recording on this disc was at one time released coupled with Bernstein's rendition of Beethoven's First Symphony-- and that was instructive, as the spiritual ground covered between the first, dated 1800, and the Third, dated 1804, is immense: it is like Beethoven is speaking a different language, despite the similarities of structure. All four movements of the Eroica are startling, but the first movement is the most so: indeed, it is in the innovations in this Protean movement that the revolutionary nature of Beethoven's art is established. This originality begins with the very first page: the movement begins with two gigantic chords, which Bernstein rightly calls "whipslashes"-- they are both economical and rhetorical, and also serve a technical function: they establish the downbeats that echo throughout the gentle and unstressed pulsations that start below with first theme. The theme is Protean also: it begins by outlining the tonic chord-- the basic harmonic material of tonality-- but then almost as if it gets derailed, after 8 notes on the tonic chord, it drops to the leading tone (D) and then to a note that properly has no place in the "world" of the key of E-flat Major, namely a C-sharp. Much of the rest of the movement is, essentially, an exorcism of, or more precisely, a massaging out, of this "sore thumb" note, which dominates much of the development section to come (relabelled as D-flat). As the opening tune, up to the intrusion of the C-sharp, is essentially a horn call, adding that note is also aberrant (horns of the time in C or F would not have been able to play it!). The second group begins with a seemingly innocuous tripping figure of downward moving dotted three-note groups. This downward droop, in fact, is a reflection of the droop down to C-sharp in the first statement of the first subject; this theme will also paradoxically inaugurate the most turbulent and violent moment in the enormous development section, where the cadential six fortes near the end of the exposition become frank dissonances, and then seem to stalk off, where follows a "new theme". This "new theme" is often cited as an innovation-- you weren't supposed to add a "new theme" in the development (a "rule" that Haydn and Mozart "broke" rather often). But the genius of it is that what seems to be a new theme is in fact a hybrid, a melding of elements from the first subject and the second. (Listen to it-- you will hear aspects of both in it, yet also recognize it as still "new"-- paradoxical also, maybe, but what genius!) This "new theme" returns in the coda later. Some of Beethoven's little stokes have caused some of the most comment: the premonitory horncall of the main theme a measure before the recapitulation (not to mention the irruption of duple time near the end of the Scherzo). But among Beethoven's greatest achievements in this monumental first movement is that it is both spiritual and stirring, utterly intellectually satisfying and rationally structured yet seeming an organic whole, seeming at once both gigantic and yet utterly economical and even terse in pursuing its logic...

Well! I could go on and on, about the amazing Marcia Funebre (one of the two most famous ever written, the other being Chopin's from his B Minor Sonata-- but this by Beethoven is so much finer!)(Bernstein says that it is perfect, as if it were dictated from heaven!)-- the brief mercurial Scherzo with its wonderful horn-calling Trio (horn calls haunt this symphony!) and the monumental Theme and Variations of the finale... but I want to say a word about the performance:

Another reviewer has said that this version is a "sedate" one. I disagree. First of all, I don't look for edgy performances, but performances that try to realize the composer's vision (so to speak!)-- and Bernstein's is perfect. It is very much in the tradition, I think, of Toscanini, and (as with Bernstein's equally magisterial 1960s renditions of the Fifth and Sixth and Seventh) it is in my opinion the greatest actualization of Beethoven's score on record. I often find that too many conductors, in striving to be avant-garde or cutting edge, or to find something of their own in the score, really misread or even distort it. If one wants a fine recording which presents Beethoven's great symphony as he intended it, I cannot think of a better performance.

A note to folks new to classical music: this music must be listened to as a primary activity: no distractions. Turn off the phone, land or cell. Sit comfortably upright in a room that is dim but not dark. Let others in the household know not to disturb you or even enter the room. Sit with your eyes not quite closed. And turn the music up LOUD!!! Even better, if you have fine headphones, use them-- you will hear all the details in this intricate music so much the clearer. Then: REALLY LISTEN-- actively pay attention to the music-- and it will take you on an amazing journey! You will be rewarded with a great artistic experience!