“My tempo markings are valid only for the first bars, as feeling and expression must have their own tempi” – L. v. Beethoven

It has always been a general recognition that a good performance allows a certain flexibility in tempo; still, the amount of freedom that a musician was allowed to remain in the borders of the good taste, has changed greatly from the Baroque, through the Classic, to the Romantic.

During the eighteenth Century, most of eminent musicians supported a quite restrained use of tempo flexibility, where not exactly indicated by the composer; the most common  technique was a tempo rubato that applied only to the melody and left the tempo unity undisturbed. The romantic aesthetic changed this dramatically; during the whole nineteenth century, modifications of tempo that affected the steadiness of the beat became more and more in use, in spite of the strong reactions of those that were true to the older aesthetic – this began from the solo and ensemble performances and spread to the orchestra performances (especially with the conducting of Richard Wagner).

Already at the beginning of the 19th Century, many sources indicate the habit of soloists of indulging in big tempo chages. Johann Friedrich Reichardt, published a review of a Ludwig Spohr’s concert in 1805 complaining about the far too big freedom that the violinist took in the tempo chages. A few years later, it seems like this sort of playing has become the norm. Feski wrote in 1833: “Ritardando and accellerando alternate all time. This manner has already become so fixed in the minds of the musical public that they firmly believe a diminuendo must be slowed down and an crescendo speeded up; a tender phrase (e.g. in an Allegro) will be performed more slowly, a powerful one faster. At times, this kind of treatement may well be applicable; but how to determine where requires very deep inside the composition and very correct feelings. Furthermore, the compositions of the older composerstolerate this type of treatment extremely rarely, and the newer ones are well enough endowedwith markings of this kind! In these, on the other hand, one misses the exalted calm, in which the older composers distinguish themselves.” [J. Feski, Caecilia, 15 – 1833]

A Spohr’s contemporary and early biographer of Beethoven, Schindler was supporting the idea that Beethoven’s late style changed to introduce two principles for a movement’s contrasting subjects, which affected the performance (including the tempo) of the passages concerned. Even though many of Schindler’s claims were proved to be fake, they reflect a general tendecy of those years. Besides, it seems like in Vienna even the orchestral performances allowed a great freedom in tempo already in the 1790s: a visitor wrote a report about the orchestra at the Hoftheater in 1795. “Such order rules here, such a rare unanimity of ensemble, depending not merely on the beat, and such an equal and unanimous feeling in the subtleties of expression, that no orchestra in Europe, even though it might surpass it in detail, surpasses it as a whole. [...] As the storm of passions gradually sank to exhaustion and the most violent agitations gave way to milder feelings, so the orchestra allowed the beat to relax in the most perfect accord with the singers and the melodies to ebb away more and more slowly , as the mood was intended to become more and more gentle. When the passions grew again, so the pulse became more impetuous and emphatic, and they also accelerated the flow of the melody with a rare unanimity of ensemble.” [Anon., Reise nach Wien - 1795, 253]. If we believe this report, this was the style that Beethoven learnt to know in Vienna and that reflected in his words: “My tempo markings are valid only for the first bars, as feeling and expression must have their own tempi”.

Left aside this review of the Hofthater Orchestra and a few others, tempo modification was not very common in orchestral performances until the mid of the Century. This was mostly due to the abscence of the necessary conditions to get to know the pieces well enough and allow a good reharsal time. Conductors were those who later allowed a greater flexibility of tempo in orchestral playing, most of all Richard Wagner, whose work had consequences until the first half of the 20th Century. The recordings of Nikisch , Fürtwängler among many others, speak for themselves and reveal the tradition of performance practice that had developed during the second half of the 19th Century.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFY1s6y6r5M

Nikisch conducts Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Berliner Philharmoniker – 1913

Giulia Barbini