Hearing Beethoven, Truth and "New Music"

Rene Leibowitz's 1961 recording of Beethoven's nine symphonies gave listeners an opportunity to hear the works as, according to Theodor W. Adorno's review of the collection, nothing less than unfolded truths And, remarkably, Leibowitz's Beethoven was said to provide an introduction to the "new music" of the second half of the twentieth century that Adorno believed was the only responsible option for composers attuned to the advance of world-history. This paper examines a facet of Beethoven reception represented by Adorno's review, and it argues that a rather cliched image of Beethoven lies behind Adorno's concept of new music.