Ranking Beethoven
Remember that post from Monday where I kindly provided you with a crap-load of Beethoven videos on YouTube? Well since all those videos were posted at around the same time — two years ago, yeah it took naive little ol’ me that long to find them — you can get an angle on how popular each of Beethoven’s symphonies are, relative to one another:
| Rank | Symphony | Views |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | No. 9 | 4426281 |
| 2. | No. 5 | 3914515 |
| 3. | No. 7 | 2769380 |
| 4. | No. 3 | 1292489 |
| 5. | No. 6 | 873106 |
| 6. | No. 4 | 281157 |
| 7. | No. 8 | 265051 |
| 8. | No. 1 | 238895 |
| 9. | No. 2 | 216598 |
Interestingly they seem to divide into three chunks. The big three are 9, 5 and 7, all with comparably high views of 3-4 million. Next come 3 and 7, with large but significantly less views, closer to one million. Rounding it up are the less popular four: 4, 8, 1, 2. All with less than 300,000 views each.
The top five do not surprise me — however the separation between the top three and the next two do. Especially number 6. I would have thought that would be up there with number 7. Maybe that’s because my personal ranking of the top five is: 6, 7, 5, 9, 3.
Also interestingly (but unsurprisingly) there are about four times more views for the first half of No.9 than there are for the second half. Number five is even more pronounced (eight times more!) — perhaps because most viewers just want to hear the famous beginning.
July 24th, 2009 at 8:36 am
I’ve never been a great fan of the 5th, but probably more out of its disproportionate popularity than its actual quality — I’m listening to it now for the first time in a while, and my conception of it was a gross caricature — it *is* pretty great.
I’ve always preferred the start of the 9th to the choral parts, even though the Ode to Joy is probably the most famous part of it. I note that the Karajan No. 9 is pipped to the post viewcount-wise by the Ode to Joy performed by a muppet ;P
I think I prefer the 1st and the 2nd to the 4th and 8th, to be honest. Classical delicateness and Beethovian brusqueness make a nice pair. I particularly like the openings to the 1st’s first and last movements, and the contrast between deliberately awkward and flowing sections in the 2nd’s last two.
I’m similarly surprised that the 6th is down so low, but Fantasia was the one video my grandparents had and so overexposure might’ve addled my opinions of it.
July 29th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Interesting ranking. My favourite recording of the 7th is Carlos Kleiber’s live performance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Read more about it here: http://www.musicride.org/?p=591