The Beethoven we can’t live without
Album Of The WeekFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
… Practical in rehearsal, unassuming on the night, Neville Marriner was underrated by critics who seek grand gestures as their reward for attendance. Working musicians, by contrast, recognised him as a colleague of uncommon sensitivity and unfailing humanity. The present 1980s set of Beethoven symphonies is proof of his rare combination of responsiveness and personal style.
With the self-selecting Academy of St Martin in the Fields, a bunch of musicians disgruntled with the other London orchestras, Marriner practised democracy in action and achieved a neat compromise between big-band bluster and period-instrument theories…
Read on here.
In The Critic here.
I remember him doing a wonderful Mozart concert here in Paris when he was in his late eighties. After the performance, he waited in the wings to shake hands with and congratulate each and every musician as the latter stepped off the stage. His performance was neat, stylish; full of vitality and inspiration.
I can only agree.
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields was the embodiment of global excellence. I was privileged to work with Sir Neville and the two other original music directors, Iona Brown and Kenneth Sillito, for twenty years. And that remains one of the most memorable chapters of my musical journey.
Marriner leaned heavily towards HIP while still using modern instruments and worked extensively with Thurston Dart until the latter’s untimely death.
Taste is individual, and I never begrudge anyone liking something whether I share the opinion. With the caveat that I haven’t heard Marriner’s whole Beethoven cycle or even a majority of it, what I can say is I purchased the 3rd and the 5th back in the days, and after repeated listenings neither remained in my collection. I just found both performances low-wattage and essentially pedestrian. If one tires of hearing charged performances of these masterworks, then perhaps this set is a welcome balm. I just thought they came across as underpowered.
I am probably in the minority, but I really do love when a new Beethoven or Brahms cycle is released. The music is timeless and rarely fails to bring out the best in performers.
Looking forward to listening to these recordings this week!
Once had the great experience of taping a radio broadcast
with Marriner. Pretty certain it was Dvorak 9. At one point he
turned to the tympanist: “I say, do you have any harder sticks?
What I’m hearing sounds a bit like a golf ball hitting a dead
sheep….”
(Once again, re: Beethoven we can’t live without…don’t deny yourself the superb set with Rene Leibowitz and the Royal
Philharmonic.)
There was a time when Marriner’s recordings were played constantly on classical radio, but not so much anymore. I’ve always treasured his work. Just last evening his superb Grieg Peer Gynt suites were in my CD player. Everything he did was just so musical and unfussy. From the Schumann symphonies to Dvorak’s final three and Tchaikovsky’s Manfred. What’s not to love? Will have to add this Beethoven set to the pile. And skip that godawful violin concerto. I bought the Philips LP when it came out and was shocked that Marriner had any part in it.
Dear Mr/Ms Barcelo, Of course, you are absolutely right in your suggestion ‘skip that godawful violin concerto’! I’ve always thought that Beethoven’s candle of inspiration was burning very low in that piece.. even the violinist who gave its 1st performance thought so little of it that he played some sections with his violin turned upside down ( or so we are told by a critic at the time). Maybe the only reason that Marriner recorded it was so that the brilliant, exciting ( but admittedly controversial) Schnittke cadenza could be heard in all its glory, played by that master violinist Gidon Kremer. The only bad thing on that recording is the almost sub-sonic ‘rumble’… Perhaps it was the sound of the London underground trains, notorious in their ability to ruin many recordings made in the ‘legendary’ Kingsway Hall’?
I agree completely about Marriner’s 4th: it’s ideal, as was his recording of the orchestral guise of the Grosse Fuge that accompanied the 4th on its initial Philips LP release. While not a replacement for the quartet version of the Fugue (the Takacs being my preferred version, these days), Marriner’s performance manages to render the abrasiveness of the opening organic, while delightfully celebrating the dancing exuberance of the final section. A pity that the present CD box set doesn’t find room for the Grosse Fuge.
Peter, The Grosse Fuge is in this box, along with Wellington’s Siege, and the Dances & Minuets album he recorded.
Aha! Thank you. Mr Lebrecht’s review mentioned only the two violin concerto recordings as extras.
Having worked with Neville and being able to call him a friend, I completely agree with the sentiments here. He did not suffer fools, for sure, but in his quiet determined way got the best from all around him.
Marriner’s early recordings with ASMF were excellent. I remember a wonderfully crisp account of Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. His later work doesn’t do much for me. He can be seen leading the second violins of the LSO in this electrifying performance of Le Sacre du Printemps, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
https://youtu.be/a9M2oTHa3GM?si=oiIGMm-pPSPhbyWU
A very nicely written review, if I may say so.
FWIW the Beethoven Concerto with Kremer did come out on CD (in 1983) . Presto lists its own remastering
New Yorker cartoon from the 80s: Radio, “…the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields…. ” Parrot, listening, “… Neville Mariner conducting.