100 Years of Beethoven's Eroica (recordings)

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

Joshua Weilerstein

Arts, Performing Arts, Music

4.9 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of my favorite things about having Patreon sponsors is that they often suggest the most fascinating pieces and topics for shows. Adrian, who sponsored a show last year, gave me one of my favorite prompts when he suggested looking at works based on literature. Now he's sponsored another episode, this time with an equally compelling idea that I was eager to explore right away. His prompt was:

"The evolution of conducting techniques throughout recorded history. How have innovations from great conductors changed how music is performed and understood?"

As a conductor, the thought of diving into different recordings of a single piece naturally whets my appetite. But the real reason I was so excited about this episode is that interpretation is, in my view, wildly misunderstood. I've tried to tackle this idea in many different ways, in my episode about the sound of the violin with Soovin Kim and my dad, Donald Weilerstein; in my "What Does Music Mean?" episode; and even in "What Does a Conductor Really Do?" But I've never taken a single piece and focused solely on its interpretation, and on how that interpretation has changed over time.

This gives us the chance to dig deeply into what makes an interpretation. So today, I'm going to share a set of recordings of one piece (and don't worry, I'll reveal which one in a moment). I'll talk about what sets them apart, both the obvious differences, like pitch and extremes of tempo, and the more subtle ones, like vibrato, phrasing, and other elements of performance that most listeners aren't trained to notice.

So, let's do some exploring together, coming right up, on Sticky Notes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes, the Classical Music Podcast. My name is Joshua
0:20.0	Weilerstein. I'm a conductor, and I'm the music director of the Orchestra Nacional de Lille,
0:24.4	and the chief conductor of the Allborg Symphony.
0:27.0	This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field,
0:31.2	or is just getting ready to dive in to this amazing world of incredible music.
0:35.8	Before we get started, I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors, Stephen, Hrant, Morella,
0:41.4	Travis, Ted, Chad, Corey, Melissa, Thomas, and Manfred, and all of my other Patreon
0:49.1	sponsors for making Season 10 possible.
0:51.9	If you'd like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com
0:55.0	slash sticking out's podcast. And if you are a fan of the show, please take a moment to give
0:59.3	us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It is greatly appreciated.
1:06.8	First of all, I'd like to apologize for this episode being a week late.
1:11.5	I came down with a sinus infection last week and just wasn't able to record or speak or do anything.
1:17.5	And I also had to cancel a concert with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, which I really regretted having to do.
1:23.0	For this week, I'm really excited to share this episode, which was sponsored on Patreon by Adrian.
1:29.7	It was a very unusual topic and one that I spent a lot of time getting into.
1:34.4	We got to listen to a lot of different recordings.
1:36.6	And it really made me think a lot about interpretation and how interpretations have changed over time, how music has changed over time.
1:44.8	So I'm really grateful to Adrian for sponsoring this show on Patreon, and I really hope you enjoy it.
1:50.0	Off we go.
1:59.6	One of my favorite things about having Patreon sponsors is that they often suggest the most fascinating pieces slash topics for shows.
2:07.6	Adrian, who sponsored a show last year, gave me one of my favorite prompts when he suggested looking at pieces that were based on literary works.
	...

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