Beethoven - Symphony No 10 - 1st Movement

Indeed, I do believe this is a worthy completion of Beethoven's projected tenth symphony. As a musician myself, who has become familiarized with Beethoven's music thoroughly, I would say without hesitation that this is a believable "reconstruction," faithful not only to the master's sound, but also - if it were to be a truly musicological effort - to his form, and context of the sound of other works of this late stage of Beethoven's life.



The opening "cantabile" in E-flat (itself faithfully based on an extensive sketch left after the master's death) is particularly "Beethovenian" as are the grand string octaves that resound before it. The whole thing, really, is a great effort, and while doubtless Beethoven himself would've been more imaginative in execution in many parts, this effort is an excellent one.



Beethoven's sketches of the Tenth Symphony are incomplete but numerous - more than often revealing very beautiful melodies, and inviting to any competent musicologist to attempt a reconstruction composition.



We know that the Tenth Symphony was to exist because Beethoven frequently mentioned it, along with the Ninth, as planned and in the works - he even began work on it before the glorious Ninth was complete (initially the Ninth was to be purely instrumental - the original fourth movement of the Ninth scrapped and instead used as a movement in String Quartet Op. 132 - and the Tenth to include a chorus, while Schiller's "Ode to Joy" was initially concieved as a separate cantata... not to be included as part of a mainly instrumental work). This overlap of work was also the case with the fifth and sixth symphonies. It is not impossible or ridiculous therefore, as other reviewers might believe, that a greater symphony was to follow the Ninth. This recording, as well as Beethoven's and his colleagues' own testimonies, are evidence to the contrary. It is interesting to note that a friend of Beethoven even heard the master play the piano reduction of the Tenth Symphony IN ITS ENTIRETY, explaning the developments as they came along.



Is it really ridiculous to think that anything greater were to follow his Ninth? His Missa Solemnis? His Fidelio? Not at all. Keep in mind that just as numerous sketches for the Tenth exist - so do accounts of Beethoven's attempts at other operas, and even a Requiem. Beethoven was constant in the development of his art, and it is more ridiculous to think of the Ninth as his "ars summa" as the other reviewers might hold.



It is an infinitely valuable learning tool, above all, teaching us much about Beethoven's manner of composition and how he develeoped his almost countless existing fragments - mere scraps of music - into monuments of sound. This isn't Beethoven speaking to us from the grave - but it is a convincing effort worthy of more performances.









Enjoy and Seed!!