Review: Honeck's Narcissistic Beethoven Ninth
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.พ. 2021
- I wanted to love this. Honeck is a brilliant conductor who has given us great Beethoven. There are fantastic things in the first two movements especially, but this performance is disfigured by a desperate need to be different, important, and epic. The result is mannered, unnatural, and ultimately, less expressively intense that it should be. What a pity!
Reference Recordings SACD FR-741
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This is Honeck trying to be different just for the sake of being different, which, usually, means there was nothing new to say about the work.
It's simply the height of hubris for any conductor-Honeck, Currentzis, Norrington, etc., take your pick-to think that he has anything "new" to say about Beethoven's 9th-or Tchaikovsky's 6th, Mahler's 5th, etc.-in the year 2019 or 2020 or 2021. You read some of these booklet notes, and you would think that they've been asleep since the 1980s, when the period instrument crew started making such silly gnostic claims.
There are a lot of Honeck recordings I didn't like and every time I ended up listening to his Dvorak 8th instead.
The fast revolutionary march idea isn't even original. This was Gardiner's (bad) idea.
His Dvorak was great but his Beethoven 5th, to me at least was self indulgent and boring. His notes for that disk were also self serving. So will not be buying the 9th.. BTW, did not like his Eroica at all.
I actually listened to this yesterday and I definitely agree on the tempi. A real shame. I thought the same on the hurriedness during the tenor's solo in the 4th movement. No space for the singer to showcase his chops. I'm always a fan of Maestro Honeck's use of brass and percussion and general pacing and I think he's one of the best out there. I more so enjoy the recording than dislike it, but it is so so fast at times which takes away from its quality.
I confess that, for me, the ninth is the least favorable among Beethoven's symphonies. I find it a flawed realization of a monumental, visionary concept. Therefore, I've been seeking an interpretation that will bring the realization as close as possible to Beethoven's ideal (to my ears, of course). I listened to many attempts - all failed to "do it for me" (including some HIP and Original Instrument readings). And then I found Fricsay's "classic" recording. That one finally enabled me to imbibe at least a portion of the ninth's sublime nectar :).
A Pittsburgh Symphony fan, here. I am so glad I have my treasured Steinberg recordings of Beethoven.
Love the tie clip!
I heartily agree! I, too, thought this would be another great Honeck/Pittsburgh collaboration, but frenzy and hysteria are NOT viable where Godlike majesty is required. I will never buy another Honeck performance again without checking here first. I hope he gets over this manic phase as soon as possible. How could he be so oblivious to what he was hearing?
And here I thought David's videos only COST me money. Thanks for saving me money on this one!
David. I was worried by Honeck's timings and your review just confirmed it. Thanks.
David: long-time Brian Society subscriber here (my first compositions are up on the site) and yes, I was at the 2011 Gothic. Pleasure to discover your TH-cam channel...so much out there, and so little time.
If Honeck wants to know what Beethoven thought about extra musical matters , he should read some of LvB's notebook entries , like "In everything but music I am an ass", or in reference to Napoleon "Even with that bastard I made a mistake" and then there is the mess with his nephew Karl.
Your description, in places, reminds me of the ridiculous David Zinman recording in which he takes the march in the last movement so fast it could be a can-can, and his adagio is also shorter than the scherzo.
Go Dave!! Spot on!!! One of if not your clearest explanations of performance problems interfacing art yet! Enjoyed this more even than your ‘exposes’ of the usually (commonly) untouchable uncrticizeable (is that a word¿) ‘god’ Furtwangler. Drinking one’s own koolaid is always disastrous…
Blomstedt's adagio with the Gewandhaus is (slightly) shorter than the scherzo and I have to say it flows well and it is nicely cantabile - not so much 'adagio molto', but it works!
Glad to hear you call out Ben Zander for HIS narcissism (and windbag-ism) as well. My introduction to Zander was a talk on why nobody besides himself gets the Danse sacrale from the Rite of Spring tempo right. EVERYONE is too slow and orchestras of the past couldn’t play it at the correct tempo. His evidence? Stravinsky’s piano roll via an lp release of it. Yep, a piano roll, where nobody knows exactly what speed it should be played back at, and where there is no change of pitch to signal the speed is incorrect! I gave him my opinion on that and I think he probably would have murdered me on the spot if he could have. I agree about Honeck’s fantastic Eroica....too bad about this one. I must admit I’d like to hear it now, to find my own compass, but I do feel he’s been headed in this direction. The Bruckner 9th was awfully fussy as well.
Thanks, Dave. I agree on your rational comments on the Adagio, but also feel that for psychological reasons, it can never be rushed. That Adagio is needed to cast aside all the thunderclouds. It is a peaceful evening after a stormy day and before a new and bright dawn. A revolution has happened (and you are right, it has no place in the last movement), and now we are entering some sort of new era. Run through it, and the listener just is not ready for that finale.
Actually David, your review has moved me to purchase this recording. I have eight recordings of this symphony (😲) and they are all pretty much alike in taking the conventional approach regarding tempi etc. So these days for me to buy a recording I have to be picky: it has to bring something new to the table for me. We can speculate ad infinitum what composers intended. Who is to say what Beethoven might think about this take on his music? I look forward to it.