Hurwitz: Unhappy endings

[Mark Thomas]

Another thought provoking twenty-odd minutes....

[terry martyn]

I laughed out loud ,a number of times.  I love the coda to the Eroica, but then my old English master did say that I was a philistine. Just as well, perhaps, that Hurwitz didn´t cite Lachner´s Fifth.  I would have been up in arms, as I want every movement to go on for ever and a day!!

[matesic]

Beethoven had a wonderful time with codas. Like it or not, the Eroica just has to end like that! My two favourites are in the middle period quartets, Op. 74 (the first movement where the lower parts go into ecstasies while the first violin risks blowing a gasket) and Op.95 (the finale, which for absolutely no reason goes into comic opera mode).

And I think Hurwitz is also dead wrong about Ein Heldenleben. Surely the hero dies and is taken to Valhalla?

[Reverie]

That was most interesting. I'll put a positive spin on it if I may and say that one of my all time favourite endings (coda maybe?) is to the last movement of Sibelius 2nd symphony. It's the perfect ending to a long winding journey - incredibly uplifting.

[Double-A]

Listening to this reminded me of one of my violin teachers. He once made a remark that Beethoven always had trouble finding the end, singling out not the Eroica but the 5th.  And every time I hear the symphony now I think "he was right" when the endless ending approaches.

I don't think Hurwitz is all wrong here (I suspect he tries to provoke for provocation's sake though). I never got warm with either Bruckner nor Strauss so I can't agree or disagree there.  I lose him when he fulsomely praises the coda of the 5th while being so down on the one in Eroica.  I also think he should make up his mind about "form". He can not disparage it when it suits him and then insist that a coda has to be "commensurate" with the work it belongs to (generally I think that the maxim "When you have nothing more to say, shut up" good advice, even in art).

I too love the glorious section in op. 74 that Steve describes.  It is worth pointing out though that the piece does not end with this passage.  The coda (if that section is already considered "coda") goes on and Beethoven takes it all back to earth before the movement is over.

[Alan Howe]

Trouble is, this is all very subjective. Entertaining, but subjective. And not very unsung.