My listening post this morning is way early – somewhere around 5am – with an episode of The Andy Griffith Show as background.
The Andy G. episode is called “Andy and the New Mayor,” and it first aired on October 15, 1962.
For my money, there’s no finer character ever written for TV than Barney Fife (played to perfection by Don Knotts). Well, Floyd the Barber (Howard McNear) comes close.
But there’s only one Barney Fife.
Anyway, I grew up with The Andy Griffith Show and watch the episodes to this day, obviously.
While Andy and Barney try to figure out how to deal with new mayor, Roy Stoner (played by Parley Bear), I’m listening to French-American conductor Pierre Monteux (1875-1964), the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F major.
I’ve encountered Maestro Monteux seven times previous to this morning, on…
Day 14. Rating: “Huzzah!”
Day 32. Rating: “Meh!”
Day 50. Rating: “Meh!”
Day 68. Rating: “Huzzah!”
Day 85. Rating: “Meh!”
Day 104. Rating: “Meh!”
Day 122. Rating: “Meh!”
Okay. Two “Huzzah!” ratings and five “Meh!” ratings.
Odds are, I’m not going to dig today’s performance. But I’m open to being surprised.
Beethoven wrote his symphonies in four parts (except for the Sixth, which is in five). The time breakdown of this particular one (Symphony No. 8 in F major), from this particular conductor (Monteux, at age 85) and this particular orchestra (Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra), at this particular time in history (July 5, 1960) on this particular record label (Memories Reverence) is as follows:
I. Allegro vivace e con brio…………………………………9:54
II. Allegretto scherzando…………………………………….3:52
III. Tempo di menuetto……………………………………….5:01
IV. Allegro vivace………………………………………………….7:45
Total running time: 25:52
My Rating:
Recording quality: 3 (conspicuous tape hiss, a fair amount of ambient noises, mono recording)
Overall musicianship: 3 (uneven, lacks magic, not engaging)
CD liner notes: 0 (no liner notes – boo! hiss! – not even time indications: how long is each track?)
How does this make me feel: 3 (“Meh!”)
Mono recordings sound like the soundtrack to an old 1930s or ’40 Hollywood movie, sort of like The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn – only, let me assure you, Pierre Monteux is no Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
When the sound is tinny, with tape hiss on top of it, it’s like putting ketchup on a turd. It doesn’t make it any better.
I wasn’t drawn into this performance starting with the first movement as I have been with some of the previous conductors. The flat mono sound is off putting to me. There’s no dynamic range, no lushness of the orchestra. It just sounds distant and old.
If this had been a stellar performance, with an old timey conductor like Otto Klemperer or Wilhelm Furtwangler, I could have convinced myself that I was hearing history in the making.
But I can’t do that. Pierre Monteux was a talented conductor but he wasn’t in the same league as those other cats.
As for the performance itself, it seems uneven.
I don’t know what else to say about this.
I just didn’t dig it.
“Meh!”