BEETHOVEN: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6

Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, the first heralding the new century, in 1800, and the last completed in 1824. Although he made few changes to the composition of the orchestra itself, adding, when occasion demanded, one or two instruments more normally found in the opera-house, he expanded vastly the tradition al form, developed in the time of Haydn and Mozart, reflecting the personal and political struggles of a period of immense change and turbulence. To his contemporaries he seemed an inimitable original, but to a number of his successors he seemed to have expanded the symphony to an intimidating extent. Beethoven's Symphony in C minor, Opus 67, is a work that has enjoyed enormous popularity, not least for it's patriotic associations that accord well with the period of it's composition and have proved to suit the sensibilities of later generations. For some the work has become known as Fate, as the result of an alleged remark of the composer, reported by the unreliable Schindler, on the opening of the first movement. Thus Fate knocks at the door. It has been left for others to point out that there is plenty of evidence for similar knocking at doors in other compositions by Beethoven, the initial rhythmic figure being one that he found to his purpose on other occasions. Beethoven composed music relatively slowly and carefully, and the early sketches for the C minor Symphony are found in notebooks of 1804, the period of the Eroica Symphony. The work was completed in 1808 and dedicated to Count Razumovsky, Prince Lichnowsky's brother-in-law, the Tsar's representative in Vienna and a patron of great munificence, while his money lasted, and to Prince Lobkowitz. It received it's first performance at a concert on 22nd December, 1808. The taxing programme, that resulted in near disaster in the final Choral Fantasia, included the Pastoral Symphony and the Fourth Piano Concerto, as well as a number of items for soloists and chorus. It seems that the Fifth Symphony was at first intended, like the Fourth, for Count Franz von Oppersdorff, from whom the composer certainly received some payment. By September of the year of it's completion, however, Beethoven had sold it to the publishers Breitkopf and H�rtel. In orchestration the Fifth Symphony shows innovations in it's inclusion of the piccolo, the double bassoon and three trombones in the final movement. The sixth of Beethoven's nine symphonies, the Pastoral, was first performed at a concert in Vienna in December 1808. The occasion was an important one for the composer, since it was likely to prove the only significant source of income for him that year. In preparation for the event he had put aside work on his projected opera MacBeth and on the alternative text of Bradamante, both supplied by Heinrich von Collin, and assembled a programme of phenomenal length. The works played included the Fifth Symphony, the Fourth Piano Concerto, a piano fantasia, items for soloists and chorus and, in conclusion, a Fantasia for the Pianoforte which ends with the gradual entrance of the entire orchestra and the introduction of the choruses as a finale, the Choral Fantasia.

The Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn concludes its complete recording of the symphonies of the composer whose name it bears with an absolutely rousing performance. The spirited Seventh Symphony brings together everything that General Music Director Stefan Blunier has demanded of his musicians from the very beginning of this cycle: emotional depth, gripping rhythms, frenetic energy, and powerful tension holding the audience in suspense even after the last chord has faded away. Prior to this work, however, the Bonn musicians show the Fourth Symphony in an entirely new light: no longer a bashful “wallflower,” it shines in its own special way between its two more famous neighbors.

Available for the first time since original broadcast!

R E V I E W:

All of a sudden, Charles Munch's star seems to be once again in the ascendant. Sony has recently reissued a swathe of his RCA back catalogue on its new Sony Originals label, including his Debussy orchestral works and his recordings of the Dvorák and Walton cello concertos with Piatigorsky. Coming soon in April is an eight disc box set on RCA Classical Masters that brings together recordings of Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn symphonies and other orchestral works … and at a ridiculously low price. Meanwhile, the new independent label, ICA Classics, has brought to market three DVDs of Munch in concert with his Boston Symphony Orchestra. This Beethoven DVD and its companions (a DVD of Debussy and Ravel, and a DVD of Franck, Faure and Wagner) capture live broadcasts that have not been seen since they first went to air in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
 
I have always been in two minds about Munch's Beethoven. His Boston Beethoven 9 for RCA - one of those new Sony Originals reissues - 88697702992 - is one of my favourite recordings of the work. It is unsubtle, oddly up close and spotlit and never plumbs the depths of piano let alone pianissimo, but it is absolutely thrilling from first note to last and very moving. His Beethoven 5, however, is one of the most enduring disappointments of my CD collection. I pull it out every year or so to see if this time I will find something magical in the performance, and each year I hear scrappy and dynamically flat orchestral playing and an interpretation lacking in nuance.
 
What a delight it was, then, to listen to and watch the performance of the 5 ^th that closes this DVD. Here is the Munch reading I had been listening for in vain: a dramatic and rhetorical performance; a performance that builds inexorably towards the final peroration; a performance of contrast held together by flexible but fundamentally solid tempi; a performance abounding in spontaneous touches, like the extra space and freedom he affords his oboist, Ralph Gomberg, for his solo in the first movement. It is wonderful to hear, and also great fun to watch Munch's facial expressions and the way his baton drops when the dynamics do so that he seems to be conducting with shoulder movements rather than the invisible stick that is beating time around his knees.
 
As good as the 5 ^th is, it is the 4 ^th that for me is the highlight here. Munch cuts an unexpectedly dour figure in the adagio introduction to the first movement of the Fourth Symphony. If it weren't for the expansive baton strokes and the white hair, you could almost believe you were watching Fritz Reiner. The allegro ignites, and Munch seems himself once more. Is it a trick of the lens, or is his baton bent a little towards its tip? My goodness, he does shake it about a bit in the allegros! Beethoven's games with rhythm in this symphony are right up Munch's street. His knack of pushing a performance forward and building momentum suits this symphony beautifully. There is a bounce and swagger to the third movement that you just won't hear elsewhere and the finale fizzes.
 
The music from Beethoven's Prometheus ballet is an interesting inclusion. The liner-notes make much of the fact that Munch hardly ever played this music, so the conductor's most ardent admirers will no doubt need to acquire this DVD to round out their collected discographies. The Overture receives a scintillating performance, right from the whip-crack of the opening staccato chords. I was less impressed by the other two selections from the ballet, though the adagio shows off the orchestra's flute, bassoon, cello and harp. The mono sound does their magnificent playing full justice.
 
The picture quality of the monochrome source tapes is variable. The Prometheus footage has a tendency to fog and fish bowl curvature. The opening of the Fourth Symphony is disfigured by static lines. The camera work itself is conventional, but the editing strikes a fair balance between footage of the orchestra and the man on the podium. Fortunately the mono sound is clear and carries fair detail. Only at the close of the 5 ^th does the music sound a little cramped in its single channel.
 
Anyone with an interest in Munch and his magnificent Boston band will find this DVD fascinating.
 
-- Tim Perry, MusicWeb International

Since Tacet re-entered the vinyl business back in 1999, barely 10 years after the supposed demise of the LP, they have ranked among the leading classical labels who continually delight their audiences with sparkling new recordings in this medium, claimed by many to be unsuitable for classical music. And now this! All 9 Symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven performed by Wojciech Rajski and the Polish Chamber Orchestra in the flawless complete recordings on LP. Rhythmically crisp, secure in intonation, snappy, elegant, sensual, exciting, always transparent - all the advantages of a modern interpretation of Beethoven on modern instruments are united here. Some of the symphonies already existed as ''Tube Only'' versions on LP. They are replaced here with new mixes that no longer originate from tube microphone, analogue tape recordings. Instead they offer other important merits, such as clearer details as a result of using more microphones. Further added benefits in production include half-speed - and/or backwards mastering, which Tacet have been famous for since their Bolero recording. There are 40 years of vinyl know-how behind this release. More information can be found on the LP sleeves.

The first two releases in the Wiener Symphoniker’s first full recorded Beethoven’s symphony cycle met with universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Now the third part, in the form of Symphonies Nos. 2 and 7, is being released. The album is part of the Wiener Symphoniker’s Road to Beethoven, a project to prepare for the year 2020, the 250th anniversary of the composer, a towering father-figure for classical music. With this new release, the Wiener Symphoniker are hoping to follow up on the great success of their first two albums in the cycle. Both the first release with Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 and the second with Nos. 4 and 5 have been picked as “album of the month” by various international music magazines. Based on these releases, the British Gramophone magazine nominated the orchestra for “Orchestra of the Year 2018”. In particular, the magazine praised Jordan’s approach of combining the classic Viennese sound with a more modern, leaner interpretation, original tempos and insights from historically informed performance. For Jordan, the content of the music was paramount. His goal was not to revere Beethoven as a monument but rather to present him in a more “natural, direct and personal” way.

The latest release in the Remastered Classics series from PENTATONE is Rafael Kubelik’s sprited and acclaimed reading from the 1970s of Beethoven’s first and fourth symphonies, performed with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Delightful, infectious and witty, Beethoven’s first symphony is a paean to the classical symphonies of Haydn and Mozart shot through with very Beethovenian touches, such as the opening Adagio which starts in the wrong key and the final movement which struggles to get started at all. These peculiarities taken with the felicity and inventiveness of his writing make this a happy and evergreen work. Overshadowed by the monumental third and the dramatic fifth symphonies, Beethoven’s cheerful and optimistic fourth has been described as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” for its mix of engaging melodies, lurching rhythms, pungent dissonances and its vigorous orchestral writing. While structurally and harmonically more complex than the first symphony, it too is cast in the classical mould with a palpable nod to Haydn in the rousing final movement. Rafael Kubelik recorded his acclaimed cycle of Beethoven symphonies in the 1970s for Deutsche Grammophon, each with a different orchestra to dazzling effect. Although recorded in multi-channel sound, these unmissable performances have previously been available only in the conventional two-channel stereo format. Using state of the art technology which avoids the need for re-mixing, PENTATONE’s engineers have remastered the original studio tapes to bring the performances to life as originally intended: in compelling and pristine multi-channel sound. Further releases from this memorable cycle are planned this year in the Remastered Classics series: Symphonies 2 & 5 (October) and Symphonies 6, 7 & 8 (November).

Since Tacet re-entered the vinyl business back in 1999, barely 10 years after the supposed demise of the LP, they have ranked among the leading classical labels who continually delight their audiences with sparkling new recordings in this medium, claimed by many to be unsuitable for classical music. And now this! All 9 Symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven performed by Wojciech Rajski and the Polish Chamber Orchestra in the flawless complete recordings on LP. Rhythmically crisp, secure in intonation, snappy, elegant, sensual, exciting, always transparent - all the advantages of a modern interpretation of Beethoven on modern instruments are united here. Some of the symphonies already existed as ''Tube Only'' versions on LP. They are replaced here with new mixes that no longer originate from tube microphone, analogue tape recordings. Instead they offer other important merits, such as clearer details as a result of using more microphones. Further added benefits in production include half-speed - and/or backwards mastering, which Tacet have been famous for since their Bolero recording. There are 40 years of vinyl know-how behind this release. More information can be found on the LP sleeves.

Tafelmusik's recording of Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth with conductor Bruno Weil a few years ago was an Earth-moving revelation, thanks to its rhythmic liveliness. The Seventh and Eighth are equally beautiful, but Tafelmusik's excellent interpretations are no longer sensibility-altering. Filled out to double its normal size, the orchestra remains agile and Weil creates a thrilling sense of underlying momentum in the music. The recording, made in George Weston Hall, glows. A DVD with rehearsal footage and interviews with Weil and Tafelmusik boss Jeanne Lamon is included.

-- Toronto Star

We usually try to list the overall title of discs when they are given one, but in this case I held back. Because this one is billed as Tacet's Beethoven Symphonies." No sense getting confused with all those other Beethoven Symphonies out there. Tacet wants to promote that their discs are unique. And truly they are. This one has two features you won't find on most other Beethoven symphony CDs: It is part of the label's Tube Only/Transistor Free series - using tube microphones and tube mic preamps (no information is provided on whether the recording medium is also tubed). (Another useful bit information would be what or where is Sopot?) Only the stereo CD and SACD options on the disc used the tube mics. The other feature is that on the surround sound layer, Tacet uses their Real Surround Sound technique, which seeks to use the entire acoustic space for the musical experience - not just employing the surround channels to convey the ambiance of the venue. In string quartets, one player is placed at each of the four corner speakers, for example. In the case of these two symphonies, the spatial positioning is as though the listener was a member of the orchestra. The woodwinds are directly in front of you close up, the horns and percussion further away in front, the strings close behind the listener and the trumpets at the distant back. As stated in the note booklet, this approach certainly does extend horizons when listening to Beethoven! I found the rear horizon definitely too close with my identical front and rear speaker channels all set with a test disc to the same volume level. I had to reduce the surround speakers by 2 dB to get a good balance with the frontal three channels. I hadn't run into this on previous Tacet Real Surround SACDs. But after balancing I found I really enjoyed the Seventh - my favorite Beethoven symphony anyway. The dance-like aspect of much of it seemed even more pronounced than usual. This is clearly not the Berlin Philharmonic or BSO, but the playing hews to a high standard throughout. It was difficult to do a comparison between the tube-recorded options and the solid state since the latter was multichannel (and overbalanced towards the rear at that) and the former only 2-channel. The strings did sound more pleasant in the tube versions - both the CD layer and the SACD layer. There was more bloom on the bass drum whacks. In general, just a bit more of that overused term "musical." But the surround presentation - especially due to the excitement of being plopped into the midst of the orchestra - still held my interest, and since my front three channels are powered by tubes, I still listened thru those lovely musical bottles regardless!" John Sunier Total playing time: 63'01

This is volume 3 of Jan Willem de Vriend’s complete cycle of the Beethoven symphonies, of which volume 1 is reviewed here. I greatly enjoyed what this team did with the Beethoven Violin Concerto, so needed no second bidding to investigate some of this new symphonic work.

The booklet notes are nicely written though somewhat subjective, and there is nothing about De Vriend’s approach to interpreting Beethoven other than the rather coy final sentence, “As always, they delve into the depths of the symphonies and from these depths, they elevate themselves to a higher level... in their understanding of Ludwig van Beethoven” Come on people: that’s not content, that’s worthless column filler fluff. Left to the evidence of what we hear, I agree with John Sheppard’s summary of these being “essentially clean, well recorded performances, combining many aspects of the modern trend towards historically informed performance.” With their SACD recording as a potentially important selling point, they immediately run into an already complete cycle and one of my favourites, that with Osmo Vänskä on the BIS label.

I don’t dislike Jan Willem de Vriend’s Beethoven at all. His Symphony No.7 has a spring and a drive which tops Vänskä for urgency in most of the faster movements, while not sounding over impetuous or rushed. The final Allegro con brio reaches fever pitch for example, and is remarkably exciting. The recorded balance is brighter on the whole, but this might have something to do with the string balance, which is a tad fuller and a good deal warmer from the BIS label, or is it the orchestra? My impression is that there is sometimes not quite enough weight in the string sound during tuttis with the NSO, or at least when the brass is in full flow. This is by no means always the case, but there are moments where the string counterweight to the brass interjections seems to struggle a little. See if you agree at 10:10 in the first movement of the Symphony No.7 where the melodic shape from the strings is actually quite hard to track. Intonation isn’t always perfect either, and the little flute solo at 10:50 in the same movement sounds plain sharp. There is plenty of detail in the recording though, and no really substantial complaints on a technical level.

The character of the brass in the Symphony No.7 is rather special in this recording, with some nicely growling horns creating a sense of drama at numerous points. The period nature of the performance of course means little or no vibrato in the strings, so there will no doubt be comments about their thinness of sound. I’m rather used to this now, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you have an allergy to this practice. The famous funereal Allegretto starts fairly urbanely but builds convincingly, and the timpani thwacks here and elsewhere are allowed free rein.

The pairing of the 7th and 8th symphonies is a good one, with the brooding and theatrical drama of the one contrasting with the frequently good natured sunlight of the other. Once again, this Symphony No.8 is very good, though while the lyrical touches in the winds are nicely phrased the legato from the strings is a little less clean. De Vriend moves everything along with a light touch and everyone at ease with his driving tempo and wide dynamics in the opening Allegro e vivace con brio. Timpani played with harder sticks tell in favour for De Vriend and against Vänskä here, whose fatter sounding drums rumble more like a storm in the background rather than being a real part of the ensemble, though that quiet ending is so tight from the Minnesota band it ends up having the last and best word. De Vriend’s Allegretto scherzando is a bit ‘twixt and between – neither really light and refined nor filled with the surprise and variety we have from Vänskä. His touch is also a mite heavy with the Tempo di Menuetto, coming from a baseline soft dynamic which isn’t really that soft. Vänskä gets his players almost down to nothing where he wants; allowing plenty of space for dynamics without having to raise the roof each time there’s a forte. There are plenty of good things here though, and certainly enough testosterone-filled meatiness to go around if you like your Beethoven assertive and masculine. Funnily enough, after so many hard-driven fast movements it is in the finale of the Symphony No.8 that De Vriend eases his foot off the pedal just a little. This allows all those late Beethoven inner voices to speak with that much more clarity, which I rather enjoy. The little off-beat timpani strokes at 2:22 are a delight, and there is plenty of colour and texture to relish, as well as a fine feel of quasi-descriptive narrative in De Vriend’s almost operatic response to this movement.

This is a fine recording and a brace of performances which has much to recommend it. There are one or two mild and mostly minor qualitative issues with the playing, and if you are looking for the most refined of Beethoven then Vänskä is still your man. Jan Willem de Vriend does have a way of making these symphonies sound fresh and exciting however, even a little dangerous – in a different and good way. These don’t quite knock the best recommendations off the top, but as a SACD choice I would certainly choose De Vriend over the heavier Philippe Herreweghe.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.



BEETHOVEN Symphonies: No. 5; No. 8 • Philippe Herreweghe, cond; Royal Flemish P • PENTATONE 5186 316 (Multichannel hybrid SACD: 54:16)


This disc represents Volume 2 of a set of the complete Beethoven symphonies currently in progress (the first volume, on the Talent label, included Symphonies 4 and 7 and was reviewed by Colin Anderson in 29:2). In a clumsily translated note Herreweghe refers to “nature” trumpets and “Baroque kettle drums with modern tuning”; these would appear to be the only concessions to period practice—by all accounts, the Royal Flemish orchestra employs modern instruments. This series would appear, then, to be comparable to the latest set conducted by Roger Norrington, with the orchestra of the Stuttgart Radio, on Hänssler.


Unlike Norrington, Herreweghe is unhampered by a tendency toward extreme tempos or self-conscious gestures. Though the tempos of the Fifth Symphony are analogous in swiftness to those of Benjamin Zander on his splendid Telarc recording, there is no sense of the kind of schizoid recklessness that marred Norrington’s Fifth, in which a furious first-movement exposition followed a more sensibly paced opening motto. What we hear instead is a superbly performed and exciting rendering of Beethoven’s war-horse. Orchestral execution is everything one could wish for, with crisp phrasing and spirited ensemble. The conducting illuminates the genius of the conception without in any way calling attention to itself.


In the slow movement, Herreweghe expertly conveys the sense of forward momentum without scrimping on the lyrical richness of Beethoven’s melodic invention. There is no sense of bombast in the triumphant finale, just a very satisfying feeling of rightness—for Beethoven’s creation and for this recreation of it. Herreweghe includes the first movement exposition repeat but follows Beethoven’s revision and eliminates the one in the Scherzo. The sound is resonant yet precise, antiphonal violins aiding in the natural balance. The listener’s perspective is intimate but not airless, allowing for atmosphere and impact. One interesting anomaly: the oboe extends the cadenza in the first movement recapitulation, replacing the one Beethoven wrote, but I found this to be an interesting and idiomatic gesture.


Herreweghe injects a muscular element, propelled by the timpani, into the Eighth Symphony, invigorating what has sometimes in the past been simply a lighthearted romp; there is lightness here, too, but the overall feeling is of vitality. Norrington, by contrast, tends to lurch through the first movement, so that whatever humor there is seems heavy-handed. The sound production he received possesses less resonant fullness than that on the PentaTone disc; strings, for one example, often sound thin and scrappy on the Hänssler CD.


The elegant little Allegretto, under Herreweghe’s hands, verges on the slightly pompous, while the third movement minuet becomes, for all intents and purposes, a scherzo, full of badly placed accents and miscues—all of which, in the words of annotator Tom Janssesns, “indicated that the Classical symphony now truly belonged to the past.” We are then propelled into the finale and its sprightly touches that clearly point to the future, and especially to Mendelssohn. Herreweghe and his Belgian colleagues dispatch the piece with panache.


This is a delightful and highly entertaining disc containing two fine performances of music that never sounds tired or routine. I look forward to the next installment with keen anticipation.


FANFARE: Christopher Abbot

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.