Let’s try Beethoven 6 times as slow with lots of reverb
OrchestrasJust when you think you’ve heard it all…
Slow Beethoven, set for release April 28 via Round Sound, is a dramatic reworking of a movement from one of Beethoven’s late string quartets, sonically transformed in a huge empty water tank in the high desert of northwestern Colorado. Performed by a string quartet led by renowned cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, Music Director of the National Sawdust Ensemble, the work is the creation of The TANK Center for Sonic Arts, a nonprofit recording studio and concert venue dedicated to the Tank.
On Slow Beethoven, the Zeigler-led quartet performs the fugue movement from Beethoven’s “String Quartet #14 in C-sharp minor,” Opus 131, at National Sawdust in Brooklyn. Relayed into the Tank in Colorado and back into the headphones of the performers, the sounds of their performance resonate in the Tank’s sonic environment, a deep, swirling reverb that sustains sounds up to 40 seconds. The extremely resonant space requires the quartet to slow the piece drastically so that the movement, usually some seven minutes long, becomes a totally unique 44-minute work….
They sent me a link. I listened.
It’s pretty much what I’d expected, except when it’s worse.
Life’s too short for slowed-down anyone, let alone the greatest composer that ever lived.
I like to read this kind of articles because it shows me how much ‘classical music’ hates the unconventional. Not that you, Mr. Lebrecht are in any way representative in how people involved with classical music think, yet your dismissive and mocking tone is illustrative of a very narrow minded thinking.
This was perhaps an experiment, and it was performed by some good musicians, right? Sure, perhaps for you, the traditionalist, is not something you like, but you could at the very least provide a link to the recording or some information on where to find it, so that others could hear and form an opinion, which may or may not align with yours.
Without providing this, this article sounds like a cheap rant about something you don’t like.
I’m a classically trained musician, btw
Alex, as a recovering ‘cellist (73 years, macula rdegeneraion), I don’t gig anymore, but like you would appreciate a sound byte.
They may be rather late to the gate with this. There are already multiple listicles of classical music slowed down.
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/slowed-down-music/
But my favorite slo-mo is one of Dolly Parton
https://youtu.be/nYPlB86JHkw
They chopped and screwed Beethoven ♂️
Do you know about the work of Wim Winters??
I can see why they are a non-profit, ha ha!
If Normie isn’t into this, he would absolutely hate “9 Beet Stretch” by Leif Inge, in which a recording of the 9th is slowed down to last 24 hours without altering pitch. It’s a pretty fascinating piece of sound art.
Some people had the same complaint about Glenn Gould’s second recording of the first movement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Nevertheless, etc., etc.
It seems a harmless thing to do. Many may find it pointless, a few might enjoy it. Hardly worth getting hot under the collar about, surely ?
Someone below mentioned 9 Beet Stretch; here’s a link. It in no way supplants Beethoven’s original, but I find it fascinating, disorienting, moving, and ultimately profound:
https://harrysmusicalemporium.com/2018/10/07/9-beet-stretch-leif-inge/