Lovely and Not Too Long

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 305, 27 April 1945, Page 13

Lovely and Not Too Long

WEEK overcrowded with good music is the exception rather than the tule and, after a seeming dearth of Beethoven Symphonies, it was rather surprising to hear the Fifth twice in one week. It seems amazing to modern listeners that this symphony was described, after its first performance, as "lovely and too long’; perhaps on that occasion, however, it was the entire concert which was too long, since it began around 6.30 p.m. and went on until some unrecorded hour, which must have been well after mid. night if the programme is to be believed. It is just as much a mistake now, as then, to overload a single prdbgramme, and I think 4YA made a mistake in saving the Fifth until the hour of 9.25, after the listener had heard a Beethoven Concerto, a group of Schumann songs, two orchestral trivialities, and the nightly newsreel and commentary. J enjoyed the Symphony more when I heafd it at the commencement of the afternoon Classical Hour.. It .is probably one of very few symphonies which retains the listener’s active attention from _the first note of its well-known opening phase until its final reiterated cadence.