[Smt-talk] Ranking Ludwig's symphonies (and Gustav's...)

[art samplaski]

> Thanks for your contribution. I read it with a smile on my face

> from beginning to end.


Glad I could provide a small useful service, Stephen. (And for anyone

else amused...)

 

Re the "nice but no cigar"--ok, ok, I'll hit the public library tomorrow

for a copy to refresh my neuron about it over the holidays.:) As for "3

is in trouble in the first phrase," was it Vasili Byros who gave an SMT

presentation 2 years ago on where the hell that C# comes from, that

it's part of a schema pattern that was completely forgotten about by

40 or so years later? I hope he, or whoever was the speaker, can tell

us the story.

 

>...the climax of the first movement still scares the hell out of me.


Tying in to your bonus question about Mahler, the climax of the Eroica

1st movement doesn't scare the hell out of me--the climax of the 1st

mvt. of Mahler's 10th does! (Think seeing a mushroom cloud appear...)

 

>Don't we all have a problem with 6, 7, and especially 8.

 

I need to relocate the cite (assist, anybody?), but I remember that GM

grouped -those- 3 together, not the 5/6/7 tag that everyone seems to

use (for no good purpose to my mind). Re "having problems" with them,

we could, ahh, have a very lengthy conversation.:) I agree there is muy

mucho interesting analysis still to be done on them; and for too many

years I've had some work on the 7th back-burnered due to, among other

things, being one of the long-term unemployed (as in, not even a day-job

for nearly 4 years...).

 

Now, -#4- for the longest time I simply abhored, despite GM being my

absolute favorite composer. The "Aha!" moment came (about 3:50am

while driving to SMT'99...) when the final movement began on the radio--

and after a minute of puzzlement as why it sounded different this time, I

realized that the soloist was a _boy soprano_. The recording was Lennie

and the Israel Philharmonic; and ever since, I've felt the only way for that

piece to be done properly is to have a child, boy or girl, sing the finale.

(Mind you, I still don't like little kids; it's just that the 4th sort of works

for me now--despite 1st mvt. structural annoyances--if one is the soloist.:)

 

>And, yes, it is puzzling why a composer as great as Beethoven would

>write four overtures for the same opera.


Even the gods sometimes screw up first (or second) drafts.:)

 

Art Samplaski

Ithaca, NY
 		 	   		  
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