I don't hear triplets in the Klemperer recording. As it happens, all three conductors interpret the grace notes in the 7th as such. Toscanini, but Harnoncourt has them on the beat, and the score leaves it open. The consensus used to be that the three grace notes should be played before the beat, cf. This is an interpretive crux at the opening of the Eroica's marcia funebre one can hear it played both ways. I've heard only one recording in which such a tempo change is made, typically by Willem Mengelberg, who slows down:Ībout those grace notes, that too can sometimes be ambiguous, as grace notes (short and on the beat) and appoggiaturas (long and before the beat) are often notated the same way. I like this music slower still.īy the way, there's a handy online metronome here:īeethoven said a metronome mark applies only to the beginning of a movement, as "feeling has its own tempo." In this movement the feeling changes when the music turns from the minor to the major for the second theme Beethoven provided no tempo instruction for this change, but he rarely did within a movement, leaving such matters to the performers. Harnoncourt's tempo is slightly slower than Beethoven's metronome mark, which is slower than allegretto. Beethoven marked the slow movement of the 7th allegretto, but according to Tovey, he "afterwards thought he should have called it andante." Later still, Beethoven provided his publisher with metronome marks for the movements of all the symphonies, and that for the 7th's slow movement is 76, in effect a slow andante though not adagio. Allegretto is generally considered to be slower than allegro but faster than andante. This may be partly because the recording I grew up with and from which I learned the music, Toscanini's with the New York Philharmonic, though generally fast, adopts a tempo for the slow movement very close to Klemperer's.īeethoven's tempos especially for his slow movements can be a vexed question. Personally, I'm with Klemperer on this - at his tempo the emotional expression is deeper and I find it more moving. Kleiber's pace doesn't feel as rushed as Harnoncourt's but it's similarly "objective," that is, an allegretto with no association with a funeral procession. For this view, Klemperer's tempo is appropriate, while Harnoncourt's is a quick march such as would never be taken in a procession bearing a coffin he ignores the tradition and takes the instruction "allegretto" literally. The movement is often described as a funeral march, though Beethoven didn't explicitly call it that as he did the 2nd movement of the Eroica.
This is a really interesting topic, and while I disagree with you (what else is new? ), I understand you and don't think you're wrong.įirst about the tempo, which can have two bases: the verbal instruction at the head of the movement, and the character of the music. (Only, it's not really all that 'simple' is it?). My friends at Music Appreciation were bemused about my "excellent detective work" until I explained to them that it's simply a matter of playing what's written in the score.
Here's the Allegretto with accompanying score so you can see what I mean by the notation - orchestra unknown: Kleiber's version is a little faster, more febrile and dramatic IMO: He favours the 'grace note' approach, as you can hear. Then there's Carlos Kleiber (who else?!). Now, those double appoggiaturas can and are interpreted differently if they're leaning on notes of longer value clearly Klemperer thought a dotted crotchet was a longer note in his lugubrious version! Here's Harnoncourt - faster and more convincing IMO!! (Klemperer sucks the life and energy out of his Beethoven #7 by making it ponderous.) These are most definitely not triplets in Harnoncourt's version but are played correctly as rapid notes leading up to the note itself. Then a favourite, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Harnoncourt. Firstly, the Klemperer: it could be argued that in slowing down the movement to a dirge the conductor was left with no alternative but to use the slower triplets!! Now, you can hear the difference with these versions. Klemperer is playing them as triplets, but they are not triplets. I thought the performance much too slow, but my 'beef' was those double appoggiaturas from Bar 29. Last week at music appreciation one of my colleagues played this Beethoven 7th symphony, recorded in 1955 with Klemperer.
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