My “office” this morning is the Restaurant-Chain-That-Must-Not-Be-Named for coffee and a bagel.
And, of course, a helping of Hungarian-born American conductor and composer George Szell (1897-1970), the Cleveland Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor.
Hot dog! Do I have a couple of hours lined up for myself, or what?
I have to be honest about something.
Well, two things:
1. Before I listened to Maestro Szell, I had no idea the Cleveland Orchestra existed, let alone that it was considered one of the top orchestras in the United States. Shows you what I know, and
2. Studying these performances and conductors is exhilarating, but it can also be depressing as hell. Why? Because nearly all of them are dead. Conductors and musicians alike.
And I’m faced with those terrifying dashes.
You know what I’m talking about. In the case of George Szell it’s the dash that separates 1897 from 1970. I’d been away from these projects for awhile. So I’d forgotten what it’s like to listen to performances from people who are no longer alive. This is especially true when it comes to Wilhelm Furtwangler, Pierre Monteux, Franz Konwitschny, George Szell, and Otto Klemperer – conductors who haven’t been alive for 40-60 years.
Not to mention Ludwig Beethoven, himself, who hasn’t walked the earth in 191 years.
What these “dashes” do to me is make me think of my own mortality, what I’ve accomplished in my time so far – and what I’ll be able to accomplish in my time left.
So these projects of mine often take a toll on me. I find myself elated by discovering magical performances from decades ago…and wallowing in melancholy at the same time.
Nevertheless, I’ll solider on and give Maestro Szell my utmost attention.
I’d encountered Maestro Szell four times previously in my Beethoven project, on…
Day 16. Rating: “Meh!”
Day 34. Rating: “Meh!”
Day 53. Rating: “Huzzah!”
Day 70. Rating: “Huzzah!”
What will today – Monday, October 16, 2018 – bring?
Probably more melancholy, especially since it’s overcast, raining, and only 45 degrees.
But all weather-induced sadness aside, what does Maestro Szell have in store for me on this otherwise fine day?
Beethoven wrote his symphonies in four parts (except for the Sixth, which is in five). The time breakdown of this particular one (Symphony No. 5 in C minor), from this particular conductor (Szell, at age 58) and this particular orchestra (The Cleveland Orchestra), at this particular time in history (November 26, 1955) on this particular record label (Sony Classical) is as follows:
I. Allegro con brio (C minor)………………………………………………………7:39
II. Andante con moto (A♭ major)…………………………………………..10:03
III. Scherzo: Allegro (C minor)……………………………………………………5:31
IV. Allegro (C major)………………………………………………………………..8:31
Total running time: 31:04
My Rating:
Recording quality: 4 (hardly any tape hiss – despite this being a 60-year-old recording – nice top end; nearly perfect sound)
Overall musicianship: 4 (but no surprises, no “magic,” nothing particularly compelling)
CD liner notes: 0 (none; boo! hiss!)
How does this make me feel: 4 (“Meh!”)
The recording is wonderful. But the performance is adequate at best. Nothing rousing here. No remarkable passages that stand out. Nothing that gets my head bobbing, my face smiling, my toes tapping, and my heart soaring.
This is a competent, solid performance of Beethoven’s Fifth that not even my favorite movement (Scherzo, the third) can pull up from mere competency.
I’m sorry. But I’ve heard too many really, really good performances of this essential symphony for me to award this with anything other than “Meh!”