Do modern orchestras play repertoire pieces FASTER because it was supposed to be played that way...

...in the first place, and the old guys just couldn't really cut it yet?

I note this contrast because I often play old albums these days, recorded in the 70s for instance... Then I check other more recent performances of same pieces on Youtube, and it's annoying to me how fast they go...

But maybe I'm just getting really old... Ha!

 

Might have something to do with this. Historically informed performance - Wikipedia I'm not in till the conductor is beating time on the floor with a staff, but that's just me. This Conductor had quite a performance though. "The large staff was reportedly responsible for the death of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), who stabbed his foot with one while conducting a Te Deum for King Louis XIV's recovery from illness. Lully died from a resulting infection."

 

I think this is far too general a statement to make. Listen to Jascha Heifetz perform Mendelssohn's violin concerto in the 50s, and then listen to just about any modern performance. They sound like a funeral dirge by comparison. Hilary Hahn is the only gal with the stones to play it as fast as Heifetz did! Same goes for the old Eastman Wind Ensemble recording of Lincolnshire Posy. The Dallas Wind Symphony is great, but they sure dragged that piece on their recording of it...

 

Wow, that's fascinating and sad! I became interested in Lully after seeing the great French Film (STILL not available on DVD in North America), Moliere.

 

Wilhelm Furtwängler's recording of Beethoven's 9th Symphony is still unbeaten for sheer speed, IMO, so it's not just a recent thing.

 

Antal Dorati wasn't known for slow tempi.

 

Perhaps. It's just something I keep noticing or happening upon. I had been listening to the EMI album of "Carmen" by the Orchestre du théâtre national de l'opéra under Georges Prêtre, with Callas (1964). Then I thought about sending a Youtube clip of the overture of this work to my daughter, since she is getting a little bit into opera. On top of the selections was a James Levine version. I thought it was too fast - I wanted her to hear the tunes and the beats. But then each and every one of the other versions posted I clicked on down the list are apparently even faster and faster!..

 

It's up to how the conductor decides to interpret the music. I have a copy of Carmina Burana conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas that is performed at a breathtaking, breathless speed. It was performed in 1974. I also have an LP set of Handel's Messiah that was recorded back in the 50's and the Sinfonia is so fast you'd think the speed on the record player is wrong.

 

If you look at the tempo markings on the charts they would use it would be something like, for example, Andante – at a walking pace (76–108 bpm), which as you can see gives quite a bit of leeway for interpretation. I think some composers would be more specific than others with their instructions.

I guess it's a fashion thing over time how some pieces are played.

 

Also a problem with individual performances.

This is the right speed and people who play it faster are bad people.

 

Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Radio Orchestra's La Traviata from 1946 is ridiculously fast. It's been said that he did this to fit the performance within the allotted broadcast time.

 

Recording ruins everything!

 

They just want to get off stage and back to the bar!

 

Early in his career, Michael Tilsen Thomas was notorious for taking pieces at faster tempos than some are comfortable with. The few times I've seen him with the BSO in recent years, he's largely pulled back from that.

 

By “speed” you mean “slowness”? Furtwängler’s is one of the slowest! That’s why it often appears alongside the myth of the CDs length, at 74 minutes. For instance, Toscanini’s earlier performance was at 64, that 10 minutes less!

Here is a good rundown of various lengths of the 9th over the years: Beethoven's ninth symphony: special recordings on cd... Ludwig van Beethoven's website -

 

Little-known fact: When Ian Hunter wrote "Cleveland Rocks", he was talking about Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Cleveland Orchestra.

No, wait, I just made that up.

 

I stand corrected. I'd like to see timings for the 4th movement, though. I remember that as being done at a breakneck pace.