VOLUME 1

ovement (“Pastoral”

VLADIMIR HOROWITZ LEINSDORF/BOSTON SYMPHONY REINER/CHICAGO SYMPHONY

Symphony No. 5: I. Allegro con brio (7:24)

“Moonlight” Sonata: I. Adagio sostenuto (7:08)

Symphony No. 6 (‘‘Pastoral’’): V. Song of Thanksgiving (8:43)

Symphony No. 9 (“Choral’’): IV. Finale: Ode to Joy (23:38)

Stereo LSC-5010

BEETHOVEN’S GREATEST HITS, Vol. 1

Conceived by R. Peter Munves Produced by Peter Dellheim ¢ Rerecording Engineer: Bernard Keville

SIDE 1

SIDE 2

Fritz Reiner/Chicago Symphony

Vladimir Horowitz, Pianist

Fritz Reiner/Chicago Symphony

Erich Leinsdorf/Boston Symphony Jane Marsh, Soprano * Josephine Veasey, Mezzo-soprano * Placido Domingo, Tenor « Sherrill Milnes, Baritone Chorus Pro Musica/Alfred Nash Patterson * New England Conservatory Chorus/Lorna Cooke de Varon

This is another in a series of improbable interviews by Charles B, Yulish. Last summer he found Beethoven in the Austrian coun- tryside, in the village of Baden. He was moving from his quarters to others just down the road. As the composer's deafness was nearly total, Mr. Yulish wrote some of his questions in Beeth- oven’s special notebooks, always at hand.

YULISH: Shall | call you Herr Beethoven, or Maestro?

BEETHOVEN: My admirers call me ‘The Master.’

YuLIsH: But, Master, why are you always moving—this is the third time this summer, and It’s only July! By count, you have moved 33 times during the 33 years you have lived in Vienna, and have had at least 38 different summer resi- dences, some at the same time. Why?

BEETHOVEN: Why, why, always why. Why can't you ask more important questions of such a busy man?

YULISH: I’m sorry...When you were 7 you began your career as a virtuoso pianist. By the time you were 20 your genius at improvisation was considered incomparable. At what point did you make a conscious decision to give up being a pianist and become a full-time composer? BEeeTHovEN: Never, really. Yes, it is true that at the piano | was superb—without peer, in fact. But remember, my first sonatas were published when | was 13. | was destined to compose. My growing deafness gradually made the deci- sion for me. Now it is even difficult to conduct. Composing | can do— What? Yes, yes. Herr Yulish, you will have to get up—you are sitting on the piano, and the movers must take, it. YuuisH: Oh, this is oné of Zumpe's pianos, small and ethereal sounding—but it is without legs! Master, it would

occa Fugue in D Minor « Air on the G-String

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™ i GAA ENS | ie Meistersinger: Prelude Ride of the Valkyries Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III and Bridal Chorus * Liebestod

appear that you play and compose while lying on the floor.

BeeTHOvEN: Need | possess both genius and refined man- ners? This piano is useful because | can move it easily, but it still sounds like a harp stuck into a box and pounded by light hammers. You know, it was | who caused the new design in pianos. | wanted a heavy, rich sound—my com- positions demanded the instruments to deliver it. This is a trifle; you should see my pianos in Vienna—the English Broadwood is superb. YuLIsH: |'d like to talk a bit about your piano sonatas. You have written 32, their compositions spanning your entire career. The ‘‘Moonlight’’ Sonata is from your earlier period —would you tell us about it? BEETHOVEN: [hat title! Yechhh! The work of that nincom- poop Ludwig Rellstab! He could not content himself with writing poetry or musical criticism, no, he had to go about baptizing music with new names! | was young when | wrote that sonata and infatuated with a lovely girl. | dedicated it to her, but | gave the sonata no name. ;

YULIsH: But you did name your Sixth Symphony the ‘‘Pas- toral.”’ BEETHOVEN: Of course—is it not a hymn to nature? Look out that window. Can you not feel that same Austrian coun- tryside in my ‘‘Pastoral’’ Symphony?

You there! Porter! Unhand those boxes of manuscripts— leave them to me! Herr Yulish, | am surrounded by ex- ploiters, thieves, bootleggers and incompetent publishers. Alas, | must manage my business affairs as well as this catastrophe called my personal life. Look about you. Al- ways, chaos surrounds me!

ADAGIETTO FROM SYMPHONY NO. 5 (Theme from “Death in Venice”)

YuLIsH: Getting back to your music, if the ‘Pastoral’ is a hymn to nature, then surely the Ninth Symphony is a hymn to mankind, for the ‘‘Ode to Joy” is an affirmation of the human condition. | understand that you conceived the mu- sical setting for the Schiller poem as far back as 1792—31 years before you actually completed the symphony. BEETHOVEN: Yes, yes. | worked at it on and off over the years. Sometimes | feel the Ninth should really be two works, one a choral symphony and the other purely or- chestral. But the public loves it as is. You should have seen the premiere when | conducted. The people went crazy over it.

YULISH: The opening theme of your Fifth Symphony is per- haps the best-known music ever written, and the whole work has quite an incredible grandeur and drama about it. It is so unlike your graceful ‘‘Pastoral’’ that one would hardly guess they were completed in the same year—in fact, both were premiered at the same concert, December v2, 1006; BEETHOVEN: Ah, what a beautiful evening. Besides those symphonies, there were several other major works of mine on the program, and to cap the entire evening, | impro- vised for a long while at the piano—my music went on and on. It was intoxicating... YULISH: But according to all reports the evening was too long for anyone to bear; it was considered a complete disaster—

BEETHOVEN: Young man, you asked why | move so much. It is to get away from the likes of you. Please go—I vant to be alone. :

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Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring « “Little” Fugue in G Minor Ave Maria « A Mighty Fortress * and eight more

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