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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 25, No. 7. 1962.

Beethoven's Tenth

Beethoven's Tenth

No, not Brahms (heaven forbid!) but the master's Symphony in C, which is the nearest to Beethoven he has come. It uses a Beethoven-sized orchestra and bears more than a few technical relations to his predecessor. But it sounds like Stravinsky and is in fact much cooler than we expect Beethoven to be. I know of one other version of this work available in New Zealand: that of Ansermet, but I haven't heard it. But why I shouldn't be able to compare it with a Nat. Orch. performance I do not know, for it is well within their reach and a delight to listen to. Ah well, give Mr Hopkins his due, he has such a backlog of 20th century music to catch up. To the Philips recording, KLC 2787, one must turn in the meantime. The Cleveland Orchestra plays it cool and classical till the finale , when Stravinsky's extraordinary imagination brings forth some very low-register bassoon passages, punctuated by brass chords pianissimo which are so deep that one strains down with one's whole body to accommodate them. The whole finale has a soul-searching sombreness which would be romantic (in which case unique) if it were not so restrained.