Here comes a Daily Beethoven full-length concert post featuring our old friend Sir Roger Norrington! Way back in the early days of TDB I posted a video featuring Sir Roger rehearsing Beethoven and dancing like a teenager at a sock-hop - but the video has since gone AWOL. Fortunately some more concerts of his have surfaced since then and seeing/hearing him conduct is no doubt more engaging in the long run...so today I'll feature a virtual "Norrington Conducts Beethoven" program with the effervescent Hélène Grimaud as a featured pianist:
Beethoven Program
Symphony 3 "Eroica"
Symphony 6 "Pastoral"
Choral Fantasy with piano soloist Hélène Grimaud
Symphony 3 "Eroica" (47 min) --Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra Japan Tour 2008, Sir Roger Norrington --Date:Jan 30 2008, --Place:Sunroy Hall (Tokoy)
Symphony 6 "Pastoral" (47 min, from VHS) London Classical Players conducted by Sir Roger Norrington. This is Sir Roger's "house band" so to speak at a period when the Maestro was a tad younger....
Fantasy in C minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra (Choral Fantasia) (18:05) Hélène Grimaud - piano BBC Symphony Orchestra, Singers and Chorus, c. Sir Roger Norrington BBC Proms 76, September 13th, 2008, Royal Albert Hall, London
Pre-show interview with Hélène here.
One of the best Beethoven bio-dramas ever made is Simon Cellan Jones's BBC production "Eroica". Basically it dramatizes the first rehearsal of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, the Eroica Symphony. That's it. It starts the morning of the rehearsal, then goes around Vienna to visit the participants, then goes to Prince Lobkowitz' palace for the rehearsal (featuring Ian Hart as B conducting John Eliot Gardiner and a reduced version of his period instrument orchestra). While taking breaks during the run through, B's girlfriends visit as well as Papa Haydn. He has a great line at the end, I won't spoil it. The DVD has an option where you can see the Eroica performed in its entirety without the drama parts. But you can see the movie part on Youtube below. Highly recommended. (IMDB says it's 2 hrs but I think that's both the movie and the Eroica by itself, the movie is about an hour and a half , I think)...: Eroica The Movie (with Spanish subtitles):
Our second feature of today (in keeping with the historical performance focus of the first film) is a short documentary of Sir Roger Norrington rehearsing and explaining his attempts to play Beethoven's Eroica like they did in Beethoven's time. Sir Roger has some pretty spry dance moves.(30 min).
