Beethoven Symphonies Project

The idea for this set of recordings came during conducting masterclasses that George Hurst and Denise Ham gave in Portugal in 2008. The repertoire was the “Eroica” Symphony, and the two concert pianists provided for the sessions had been playing all nine Beethoven symphonies in transcription, in concerts around Portugal.

George’s idea was to direct the Beethoven symphonies in piano transcription, in his words, “to show how they go”.  What did he mean and why in transcription? For a concise answer, it is best to read his own “defence” of the project.

In these recordings, since the transcriptions were originally made for four hands, a third pianist reading from the score was necessary – sometimes to put a part in the right octave or to play an important part of the score that was not present in the transcription. The pianists on these recordings—many of them conductors themselves—are ones who worked with George over many years of his teaching. Special mention must be made of the conductor Toby Purser who, for all but one of the symphonies, was on the second piano reading from the orchestral score.

The recordings were made at London’s Royal Academy of Music between 2008 and 2012.  George Hurst died before being able to complete the project.  For the moment, we are able to present only the First and Fifth symphonies.

George Hurst’s Introduction to the Beethoven Project

“In recent times there has been a tendency amongst conductors towards rigidity of tempo and strict adherence to metronome marks and the urtext edition. The alternative to this approach often seems to be an interpretation in which markings are ignored and the composition is not permitted to be itself, but is subject to personal whim. The answer to the inflexible approach is simple and was given by Beethoven himself who was one of the first to use the terms “elastischer Takt” (tempo rubato) and “gefuhlstempo” (tempo of feeling). Ludwig Spohr, speaking of Beethoven’s conducting of the Seventh Symphony premiere, describes the performance as “quite masterly”, with Ignaz von Seyfried recalling that Beethoven “was very meticulous with regard to expression … and an effective tempo rubato”.

Gunther Schuller writes: “There is abundant evidence that Beethoven considered the tempo rubato a sine qua non of high-level music-making in his time. Beethoven’s friend Anton Schindler went so far as to annotate a 21-bar section of the second movement of the Second Symphony with various poco accelerandos, poco lentos, tempo primos, etcetera.”

I am burdened with the knowledge of these bars and hundreds more throughout the nine symphonies, all of which was learned from my master, Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) who played under and learned from Hans Richter (1843-1916) who played under Wagner (1813-1883) and learned also from Hans von Bulow (1830-1894) who learned from his father-in-law, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) who was a pupil of Carl Czerny (1791-1857) who was himself a pupil of Beethoven.

What I cannot account for is the discrepancy between Monteux’s teaching and his performances. He was so clear in his singing and his teaching, yet was so contradictory in his concerts. I have not heard one performance of any Beethoven symphony which reflected the principles he taught and I have no explanation for it. The discrepancies are equally evident in his recordings and are another reason why I must set the record straight.

I do not require an orchestra to demonstrate the impact of this old tradition – all I need are two concert grand pianos and three pianists. With these, I propose to record all nine symphonies.

These recordings would provide a distillation of this tradition, together with an insight which applies to all music-making.

It could be said that these recordings represent an idealised goal for the conductor. They are not intended to be perfect performances but they are both a realisation and the passing-on of a particular tradition. In that sense they are also a statement of what George believed – his “religion” as he used to call it. What fired his teaching was the desire to communicate to future generations what he had learned from his masters and which he feared could be lost. He would often say that he himself was never anything but a good pupil. 

Those who worked and studied with him knew he was much more than that. He was a true artist who also possessed a superb technique – a rare combination in a conductor.  But he was an artist who constantly acknowledged the great debt he owed to a musical tradition he had learned and who felt what he described as a sacred responsibility to pass it on.

The Beethoven Project Recordings