Beethoven Symphony 5Tempo. Beethoven's tempo marking from 1817 (9 years after the first performance) is of minim = 108.
In recorded performances many conductors go for about 88-94. Boulez manages to be as slow as 74.
Nobody has gone faster! I think that the problem is an equation of
the power and depth of Beethoven's C minor with breadth of tempo. But what is so special about
this movement is the combination of the power and the depth with the relentless, almost hypnotic,
one-in-a-bar swiftness. Reasons for ignoring Beethoven's tempo marks are rather passée, but
for some other comments on tempo please see the
Rough Guide.
Whilst it seems reasonable to discuss whether this musical
germ can be played slower and/or with a rit
later in the movement, undoubtedly this opening is intended to be played in tempo.
Some have argued that the very presence of the pauses implies a rit. This is obvious nonsense
as shown by the opening of the 3rd movement where Beethoven carefully writes a one bar
poco ritardando before the pause - in other words, he could write things like that when he
wanted them. Whose piece of music are we trying to play here? Beethoven's? I'm not suggesting
for a moment that tempo fluctuations not written in a score are wrong,
but rather that the (often excessive)
treatment of this all-important opening can give it a wholly different character to what it
appears that Beethoven intended.
 2. 1st Movement: Bars 1-10
The length of the phrases that Beethoven is writing is crucial to performance.
There are a number of possibilities for which I would recommend the discussion
in Gunter Schuller's The Compleat Conductor, pp.109ff. Suffice it to say that
this feels and works in simple 4 bar patterns. Note two things: firstly the first bar
must have an upbeat feel, and secondly that bar 4 is an extra bar, simply inserted to
ensure the second pause is longer than the first. This logic applies well to the whole
movement.
 3. 1st Movement: Bars 63-66
Before I'd ever seen a score of this I thought the rhythm was as in the top
stave! That's often how it sounds, unless you recognise that slurs in the early 19th
century imply phrasing more than bowing/breathing, and that the C-Bb is appogiatura to
resolution (albeit on a weak bar). In other words there needs to be the tiniest of
articulations between the two Cs, as in the second stave.
 4. 1st Movement: Bars 380-391
Beethoven loves throwing in an extra bar to the phrasing structure at
climactic moments. Here we have the usual 4 bars followed by a 5 bar phrase
and then we're back to 4s again. This explains why, in rehearsal at least, someone
often comes in a bar early, and just maybe might help prevent it happening!
 5. 1st Movement: Bars 423ff
Heavily accenting on the first note of each slur plus a shortened second note is required here.
 The short extract below strongly suggests to me that
Beethoven intends the final two notes of bar one in the lower part
to be tripletised. For one thing the notation to write it as such
didn't yet exist, and for another it just doesn't make sense not to!
However, if that is correct one has opened a can of worms as there
are many places where the same logic could be applied. Norman del Mar
says that figures like the prevalent
dotted semiquaver - demisemiquaver - dotted crotchet would be
'woefully softened' if tripletised. I think, rather, that that is a
problem with his chosen tempo of quaver 72. At Beethoven's quaver 92
the effect will be a gentle rather than woeful softening.
Tripletising plus Beethoven's tempo produce (especially in the opening melody) the
desired effect of escape from the brutal questions raised by the first movement.
Suffice it to say that this is not a problem with a simple answer, and
I believe each case within the movement needs taking on its merit.
 A subito change from piano to forte happens a lot in this movement
(also from forte to piano), and needs handling without a crescendo.
Also the slurs in the 3rd and 4th bars demand a gentle lean on each quaver.
 The violins end the movement with a series of multiple stopped chords.
Undoubtedly the practice of the day was for everyone to play all the notes, and
not the common 20th century practice of divisi. The player therefore arpeggiates
each chord (with the bottom note on the beat).
 Beethoven writes the ritardando over one bar only. And it's just poco (a little).
Most performances stager to a halt at each of these pauses. Why?
 10. 3rd Movement: Bars 25-27
This wonderful horn tune is derived in part from the rhythm of the first movement germ.
And this is even more clearly so because the phrase structure here means that (again) we start
on a weak bar. I prefer to think of this movement in pairs of bars, but of course groups
of 4 is also possible.
 11. 3rd Movement: 370ff
There is no tempo relationship between this movement and the next. Also there
is no need to slow down before the Allegro - how many times I've played one of the
violin parts here and the string quavers have not been together because of a pull-up.
The tempo simply changes bang on the start of the Allegro. Also, notice the wonderful
effect that the pedal note C has during the last 4 bars of the scherzo, pulling us into
the blaze of sunshine in C major. In fact this pedal C has been going on for 46 more
bars before this excerpt!
 It's interesting to note that Beethoven seemed to consider what we would call
the 3rd and 4th movements as one entity, because when there is a reprise of the
scherzo material (a very unusual thing to do, note)
he writes Tempo I which is manifestly not talking of the tempo
of the Allegro.
Also it's worth pointing out that this is very early in the usage of trombones in a symphony (there's one obscure earlier example). As well as the trombones the piccolo and contrabassoon play for the first time in the symphony at this point. 12. 4th Movement: Bars 44-47
At this point we get some piano interjections. What a relief - we've just had
a relentless 46 bars of fortissimo!
 18. 4th Movement: Bars 72f
The piccolo has a very important part. Here's just one example. The orchestra
is playing the lower line, the piccolo alone interjecting the scampering top line.
 19. 4th Movement: Bars 353-362
Here is the start of the final Presto.
If we are roughly following Beethoven's tempo markings then we have to accelerate
from minim 84 to semibreve 112 over the preceding 9 bars -
i.e. it is not far off three time the speed of the Allegro!
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