beethoven choral fantasy op 90

[pianistimo]

well, twice in a row - i've been hearing the 'new beethoven.'  new interpretations, that is.  christoph eisenbach conducted the philadelphia orchestra in 'beethoven's 9th symphony' at the mann center - and then, when i got home yesterday i heard beethoven's choral symphony on pbs with a pianist by the name of euntaek ?  kim who seems a brilliant pianist - but who's interpretations are kind of 'avant guard' to my taste.

what is happening is that they take the piano and forte of the beethoven and give you accents everywhere.  sort of like giving beethoven a 'shostakovich' interpretation.  to me, it is decimating beethoven by reducing everything to a lowest common denominator (each note - very slow tempos - thumb ur nose at beethoven).

what i do notice is the similarilty between some themes of the choral fantasy and the 9th. 

to say the least, i did not like either - but i DID like certain points in each piece.  just the way it was all tied together - i didn't like.  in fact, i wanted to throw up at the tempos in general for the 9th symphony.  do you think some people just 'get' beethoven and others don't like him and never will - or think that it's ok to massacre him.  or are trying to make a point about modern interpretations.  i'm really bothered about this.  i paid good money.  i want to hear beethoven in a traditional way - not tied to a note-by-note degradation of the piece.  all i heard was note by note - and now i understand in a BIG way about 'flow' and how a slight tempo change can mean the life or death of a piece.

[dlu]

I think it's interesting to hear old works like you've never heard them before. I'm not sure if this helps you but I've always loved to listen to the Beethoven symphony cycle recorded by Christopher Hogwood and and Academy of Ancient Music which I think uses traditional instruments and I overall like the interpretations. Also, I haven't heard the recording but I've always wanted to hear the Esa-Peka Salonen (sp?) on DG. Oh and also the Liszt Piano transcriptions played by Glenn Gould are also intruiging.

Sorry if I didn't answer your question.

DLu

[pianistimo]

i must be deranged or something.  everyone left loving it except for me.  i felt like i was wishing a skunk would walk by and stink the air according to the music that was supposedly 'beethoven.'  even the fireworks had no effect on me after the concert.  i was depressed.

christopher hogwood and the academy of ancient music WOULD be great to hear.  i think that the forte's of the time were not crashing.  or even, disruptive really.  they were part of an entire statement and not THE statement.  everyone thinks because of beethoven's deafness that he was half camby or something.