Beethoven 1

Well, it is more Haydnesque than most of his works, but it's still Beethoven. You can dig a fair amount into your staccato, like any other Beethoven scherzi, just be sure to really observe those dynamics.

 

I would treat it just like any other beethoven symphony.

 

+1

There are musicologists out there that make too big of a deal about the early Beethoven symphonies (more "classical" less "Romantic" blah, blah, yadda, yadda). They do that so they have an excuse to publish a paper over old ground in a discipline that is already oversaturated with too much trivial research. And that's it. Sometimes musicians hear these revisionist and anti-revisionist positions and take them a little too seriously. Don't second-guess yourself or an audition committee. Go with playing Beethoven like Beethoven.

 

Actually B1 is very like the late Mozart symphonies. Where as I would dig alot in B3 and
B7 and even more in B9, B1 needs a little more reserve. Definition is more important that power in this one (only this one, B2 get heavy early on!) so it's not so much a care of heavy you 'spic' but how much of what you play is note and how much is bow noise. Note to noise ratio is high here! Left hand solidity and slightly longer bow contact than you'd think. Experience is a great thing and I wish I could give you some over the internet. But there is a feeling you get when the note is coming through string and there is less groggy bow noise. Try to get this in your practice sessions and rembember what it feels like because you won't be able to hear it when your in the orchestra. Watch the video on you tube of Ibragimovic playing the excerpts for the you tube orchestra and try to get a feel for his playing in the mozart 39 (or is it 37?) Anyway, this is the feel!!
Get it, keep it, work on it, covet it, don't sell it though!
FC