Beethoven at Carnegie Hall

This article was originally published on my Typepad blog on January 25, 2010

In the past two weeks, I've seen two excellent performances of Beethoven symphonies in two extremely different styles.

On January 15th, I saw Daniel Barenboim conduct Beethoven's 6th, the Pastoral. Although Barenboim has never been either my favorite conductor or pianist, I have to give him a lot of credit here. His was the classic approach, nuanced and unrushed, and it worked perfectly. At intermission, I heard favorable comparisons to Otto Klemperer, known for his slow tempos. It was flawless performance by the Vienna Philharmonic. And they showed again, after intermission, what an awe inspiring orchestra they were with Wagner's Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan. 

On January 24th, I saw James Levine conduct the Met Opera Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven's 5th. It was actually the last piece in a very long concert -- 2 1/2 hours including intermission -- that started strongly with Schubert's 8th, the Unfinished, and continued with lieder and an arias by R. Strauss. The soprano, Diana Damrau, was excellent and called back for an encore, a second aria from Ariadne auf Naxos. Levine's conducting of the 5th was crisp and totally controlled.