Beethoven's Fifth

Leonard Bernstein & The New York Philharmonic - "Beethoven Fifth Symphony" (1962) - Columbia Masterworks

Hello Friends,

Keeping it classy once again on a Sunday Morning.  This time with an all time great performance of one Classical music's greatest works, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as performed by the famous New York Philharmonic orchestra as lead by the incomparable Leonard Bernstein!  Hangover cures don't get much better than this!

No one loves a good hook more than Tiki T and myself and perhaps there's no piece of music with a better hook that Beethoven's Fifth.  The famous Da-Da-Da-Daaah intro which was described as Beethoven as the sound of "Fate knocking at the door".  I'll say!
That theme, in one form or another, permeates throughout the record as if to say there's no escaping it!

Its tense, terse, fierce and unrelenting.  Fate is something to be feared.  You can run, but you can't hide.  Its the ultimate inevitable.

Beethoven was one dark dude!

By the time we get to the Fourth and Final Movement (the "Allegro" for you fucking snobs) the music takes us out of the darkness.  The chords change from C-minor to C-major and we are left feeling satisfied, triumphant.  Things sound more like a victory march than they do a funeral procession.  But in the movement's final bars, we're once again reminded that Fate (a much more subdued, Da-Da-Da-Daaah) bubbles not far below the surface.  Enjoy your victory today suckers because who knows what tomorrow may bring?  

(For Beethoven, Fate may have in the form of the loss of hearing he started experiencing around this time.)

Our favorite part of this Symphony (and one of our favorite things in our very limited knowledge of Classical music) is the lamenting little oboe that appears out of nowhere amongst the turbulence and grandeur of the First Movement.  Buried within a barrage of the four note theme (Da-Da-Da-Daaah), everything stops and a short, quiet and timid oboe solo emerges.  Like a small, lonely man crying out.   Its like the sound you might hear if you were drowning in the ocean, sinking fast beneath the tumultuous rocking waves, a moment of solace, calm and clarity before dying.  Fucking heartbreaking.

Here's a real short clip of what we're talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffacsi35Z6s

Great record and a great piece of music!  Hangover is (almost) gone and we're ready to greet the day and hit the ground running!

RATING: 5 ludwig vons out of 5