[Unfortunately the film is no longer on YouTube, but it might be available elsewhere in the future.]
Have a look at the score!
There are other bold Szellisms in the 1964 Cleveland recording, like the slow tempo and heavy quality of the Scherzo, and the way the microphone seems to be trained a single violin during the pizzicato section near the end of the Scherzo (to give the illusion of absolute cleanliness, perhaps?).
Here's a wonderful clip of Szell rehearsing the first movement of the 5th. Unfortunately Szell doesn't make it to the recapitulation in this rehearsal, but he does say "that's good" to the brass who play the motive in the exposition. A complement from Szell? I have heard that is rare indeed. Perhaps he was playing for the cameras.
5 comments:
uuhm...did you know that the link to the Szell rehearsal goes to Connie Francis' "Three Coins in the Fountain"?
LOL! I suppose it was in my computer's memory from yesterday when I used it to illustrate one of the themes in the second movement of John Ireland's D minor Violin Sonata and the main theme of the first movement of Thomas Dunhill's D minor Violin Sonata.
Thanks for letting me know. Perhaps it is good idea to check these things before posting, huh?
I thought it was, perhaps, a joke! Szell never complemented. I grew up watching him conduct in Cleveland.
Using horns in this passage is probably still the norm. Almost every recording has horns rather than bassoons. Karl Bohm's for instance. It's a recapitulation in a different key and horns of Beethoven's time couldn't play the notes. Many conductors feel that Beethoven wanted horns but had to give the passage to the bassoons.
I have never played a performance of the fifth with horns playing the passage, but your explanation does make some sense.
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