GREAT recorded performances of Beethoven's symphonies are so numerous and my own, from childhhod collecting days, include performances by maestri Bruno Walter, Felix Weingarten, Arturo Toscanini, Sir Thomas Beecham, George Szell, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Eugene Ormandy and Herbert von Karajan. ART, pictorial, is akin to the aural manifestations. Composers have always been painting in sound, sensing a visual companion to their creations. We, I am an opera composer, often identify the pitches and harmonies with colors. Beethoven's symphonies, opera, Missa Solemnis, concertos, sonatas, string quartets, overtures, chamber music generally ,and song literature, is so pervasive and his world consciousness and basic humanity construct an icon unparalleled to and past his own era. At Juilliard, I studied his oeuvre and , in those days, all singers learned the concert rep of Beethoven , Schubert , Schumann, Wolf and Grieg, whether they would be opera singers or concert singers . So much of our treasured masterpieces, vocal and instrumental, are unknown quantities to most Americans. THANK YOU WQXR FOR CELEBRATING BEETHOVEN !!! Beethoven's symphonies are the ABCs of most essential single composers' oeuvre of the symphonic literature. Who ever having heard the Waldstein well performed can ever forget its beauty and nuanced scope of emotions. Wagner and his contemporaries and their successors all recognized the epic achievement of Beethoven. I am a romantischer Wagnerian heldentenor and director of the Richard Wagner Music Drama Institute at 418A Main Street, Boonton, NJ . I have sung fo ur solo concerts in the Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall. As part of my Ten Language Solo Debut concert at the Isaac Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, I sang the Gott ! welch dunkel hier ! aria of Fidelio. it can be heard from the live performance on my three websites, one of which is www.WagnerOpera.com It received rave critical notices in newspapers and magazines. The Beethoven violin concerto is celebrated by its ardent interpreters Heifetz, Menuhin, Perlman, Elman, Oistrahk and Paganini. Great Beethoven interpreters at the piano include Horowitz, Rubinstein, Brailovsky, Gieseking and Paderevski. Among the greatest singers famous for their Beethoven performances in opera and concert my voice teachers Kipnis, Schorr, Singher, Brownlee, and Matzenauer. Other famous singers with extensive Beethoven "rep" were Flagstad, Roswaenge, Schlusnus, Hoffmann, Hines, Maison, Greindl, Vickers, and Weber.

These clearly are the best recordings ever made of these works.

I point out that the transition from exposition to development in the Seventh Symphony makes no sense without the repeat. Conductors who skip the repeat simply have no clue.

The best performance I ever heard of the Seventh was a live one I heard on WQXR one or two years ago. The conductor was an Asian-American woman whose name escapes me, unfortunately. All the repeats were observed and the last movement absolutely flew. I wish I could give better information. I hope this performance is or will become easily available.

Beethoven recordings by Toscanini, Beecham, Walter and Bernstein, each with their own distinctive approach are major contributions to recorded history. i have been collecting them and recording broadcasts from tv and radio which have more recent maestri withj their own styles. Like Shakespeare, even a "bad" performance cannot ruin the experience. iu am the director of the ichard Wagner Music Drama nstitute at 418A Main Street in Boonton, NJ, where i teach composing, conducting and cpach actors for the Shakespeare plays and singers for the Wagner operas.

There is a lot to be said for Gunter Wand's 5th and for Leonard Bernstein's 5th and 7th. I find Kleiber's 5th kind of grim, Wand's is happy. Also a joyous 5th: Roger Norrington's EMI recording.

A case can certainly be made that Carlos Kleiber was the greatest conductor of his generation.

His score knowledge was astounding. His semaphore was unique, and his players invariably responded like novae, bursting with energy and light. And his repertoire was much larger than is commonly known.

Beyond all, Kleiber had (I believe) the gift of line and proportion and phrase. This is what almost everyone first notices about a Kleiber performance. Unusual as it may seem, it was always, somehow, perfectly correct and exactly what one had always been hoping for.

Carlos Kleiber was, perhaps essentially, an Ecstatic. There are reasons his favorite poet was Emily Dickinson.

I knew and studied with him for 15 years. (Yes, he did not live in a cave. He knew people, and came out to play.) There was no one in music like this man, at least in the modern era. For very good reason, his Fifth seems to reach the top of almost everyone's list.

Regarding the Seventh, I prefer the DVD he made with the Concertgebouw. If one can imagine, it is even more arresting and quicksilver.

In 1951 or 1952, I was listening to a program called "The Masterwork Hour" on WNYC. I heard a performance of Beethoven's 7th conducted by Hermann Scherchen. I was overwhelmed by its beauty. I bought the LP record and listened to it again and again. It remains my favorite performance of the work.

Yes, agreed. The repeats are an essential part of all music from Beethoven's time period (and before and after, as well). It is too bad that there was a period when it was mainstream to ignore repeats, even among great conductors. The Sonata first-movement form is an entirely different creature without the repeats. So what if it makes the piece longer! We're supposed to hear the material twice.

As you can tell from my relentless posts, I despise that the ratio of dead (& over the hill) performers to young vibrant ones among WQXR's picks is so high and rising. Paul Lewis is the only vibrant young-ish performer that has yet been selected for the list, that just isn't fair. I'm not asking for child prodigies, just great musicians in the prime of their careers.

I assume we might get Perahia or Brendel for the Piano Concertos (or Barenboim/Klemperer? If Brendel, choose the stellar live Levine/Chicago recordings). But as a substitute/alternative, how about Lars Vogt for the Piano Concertos 1 & 2? Or Michael Roll. And for the Violin Concerto, how about Frank Peter Zimerman or Christian Tetzlaff who both have stellar full Beethoven CDs with the Romances (and would be equal in quality to the older Mutter and Perlman recordings, which I'm sure are at least under consideration for the pick). I would also like to see Hilary Hahn's Beethoven picked, but her concerto is paired with the Bernstein serenade, so I guess she is out of the running. There is no excuse for not having a higher representation of younger performers.

Anyone want to chime in with other suggestions along these lines?

Let's mix up some young blood with the dry bones.

If Beethoven wrote repeats, then play the repeats!