I Columbia] KStereoJ

MS 7504

MASTERWORKS

GREATEST HITS Ode to Joy, Fifth Symphony (First Movement), Moonlight Sonata (First Movement), and more

BERNSTEIN ORMANDY NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA

PHILIPPE MORMON ENTREMONT TABERNACLE CHOIR

Produced by John McClure and Thomas Frost

BEETHOVEN'S GREATEST HITS

Side 1

FIRST MOVEMENT (Allegro con brio) from SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN C MINOR, Op. 67 (s:»)

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC LEONARD BERNSTEIN, Conductor

MINUET IN G (2:57)

Arranged by Thomas Frost THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor

FUR ELISE (3:24)

Arranged by William Smith THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA WILLIAM SMITH, Conductor

FIRST MOVEMENT (Adagio sostenuto) from SONATA NO. 14 IN C-SHARP MINOR, Op. 27, No. 2,"Moonlight" (6:54)

PHILIPPE ENTREMONT, Piano

TURKISH MARCH from "RUINS OF ATHENS" (i:»> THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor

Side 2

FINAL MOVEMENT (Presto; Allegro assai; Rezitativo; Allegro assai) from SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN D MINOR,

Op. 125,"Choral" (23:50) LUCINE AMARA, Soprano; LILI CHOOKASIAN,

Contralto; JOHN ALEXANDER, Tenor; JOHN MACURDY, Bass

THE MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR

RICHARD P. CONDIE, Director

THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA EUGENE ORMANDY, Conductor

The selections are in the public domain.

Leonard Bernstein has defined the genius of Ludwig van

Beethoven (1770-1827) as "simplicity itself made mani¬

fest. In all the realm of the arts you will never find a sim¬

plicity to match Beethoven's. It is a simplicity that shines

all the more purely for the intricacy of human feeling that

envelops it. For Beethoven, like the greatest of the proph¬

ets and teachers, knew how to pluck from the air the

essential, the elementally true, and develop from it a com¬

plex super-structure that embraces all human experience."

"Simplicity" and "complexity"—two words say it all

about the art and the creator who burst u^on the music

scene at the end of the 18th century. Beethoven's music

can, indeed, be simplicity itself (as in this album's "Fur

Elise") or dramatically complex (as in the Chorale finale

to the Ninth Symphony). But whether expressed in a

simple work for piano or in an ambitious work for chorus

and orchestra, the human condition is always ennobled

and made universal.

As a man, Beethoven was disarmingly simple and mad¬

deningly complex. Contemporary accounts reported that

he was "short and insignificant, with an ugly red face,

full of pockmarks," that he was "strong of frame like

Napoleon, the neck short, the shoulders broad, the head

large and round." This "insignificant" man, who was later

to be extolled as a superman of music, was rude, proud,

self-obsessed and, often, cruelly cynical. Of a lifelong

friend who had done him many favors, Beethoven once

wrote, "I rate him and those of his species only according

to what they bring me; I regard them purely and simply

as instruments on which I play when I please." But he

could also be almost humble. In replying to the adulation

of an admirer, he once said, "I have never thought of

writing for renown and glory. What I have in my heart

must out: That is why I write."

As imperious and forbidding as he often was, Beet¬

hoven still could inspire great love. One of the most

touching of all moments in music occurred on May 7,

1823, at the premiere performance of his Ninth Sym¬

phony in Vienna. The composer, who was by then totally

deaf, shared the podium with the conductor. A music

journal later reported that the symphony was acclaimed

"with enthusiastic shouts raised to the master from over¬

flowing hearts, for his inexhaustible genius had opened

up a new world to us, and unveiled never-heard, never-

suspected magical secrets of divine music!"

But, as Beethoven's pupil and biographer Anton

Schindler reported: "Alas, the man to whom all this honor

was addressed could hear none of it, for when, at the end

of the performance, the audience broke into enthusiastic

applause, he remained standing with his back to them.

Then it was that Caroline Unger [one of the singers] had

the presence of mind to turn the master and show him the

cheering crowd throwing hats into the air and waving

handkerchiefs. He acknowledged his gratitude with a

bow. This set off an almost unprecedented volley of

jubilant applause that went on and on as the joyful listen¬

ers sought to express their thanks for the pleasure they

had just been granted."

Library of Congress catalog card number R68-3741 applies to MS 7504.

Other Greatest Hits albums:

SSacb’s GREATEST HITS von

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring/A Mighty Fortress Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and more

ORMANDY PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA E. Power BIGGS Pablo CASALS

Walter Carlos with (Switched-On Bach)

STRAUSS* GREATEST HITS

Blue Danube Waltz, Pizzicato Polka, Tales From the Vienna Woods,

and more ORMANDY

PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA

MS 7501 MS 7502

Tchaikovsky’s GREATEST HITSvoU

1812 Overture, Waltz of the Flowers, Andante Cantabile, and more

BERNSTEIN ORMANDY NEW YORK PHILADELPHIA

PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

MS 7503 MS 7506

CHOPIN’S GREATEST HITS:

Minute Waltz/Military Poionaise Fantaisie Impromptu and others

Eugene Ormandy Andre Kosteianetz Philadelphia New York Orchestra Philharmonic

Philippe Entremont

MOZART’S GREATEST HITS

neluding the (heme from "Elvira Madigan.Don Giovanni Minuet, Rondo AHaTurca, Marriage of Figaro Overture,

and others Eugene Ormandy George Szeit

tiiladelphia Orchestra Cleveland Orchestn Philippe Entremoni

MS 7507

MS 7504 Columbia

MASTERWORKS

4

COLUMBIA STEREO RECORDS CAN BE PLAYED ON TODAY'S MONO RECORD PLAYERS WITH EXCELLENT RESULTS. THEY WILL LAST AS LONG AS

MONO RECORDS PLAYED ON THE SAME EQUIPMENT, YET WILL REVEAL FULL STEREO SOUND WHEN PLAYED ON STEREO RECORD PLAYERS.

Cover art: Milton Glaser / Manufactured by Columbia Records/CBS, Inc./51 W. 52 Street, New York, N.Y./ ® “Columbia," “Masterworks," Marcas Reg. Printed in U.S.A.

GREATEST Hi