Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies ~ Pletnev [Box set]

Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Mikhail Pletnev (Conductor), Marianna Tarasova (Performer), Marina Tarasova (Performer), Russian National Orchestra (Orchestra), Angela Denoke (Performer), Endrik Wottrich (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Marianna Tarasova, Marina Tarasova, Angela Denoke, Endrik Wottrich
• Orchestra: Russian National Orchestra
• Conductor: Mikhail Pletnev
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (September 11, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 5
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B000SSPL26
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #216,770 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A boldly eccentric Beethoven cycle--there's nothing else like it, September 11, 2007

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Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies ~ Pletnev (Audio CD)

Russia doesn't really have a Beethoven tradition that has made its mark on recordings, so this complete cycle of the nine symphonies from Pletnev and his Russian National Orch. is something of a milestone. Even Mravinsky, who showed flashes of inspiration as a Beethoven interpreter, gave us nothing close to a complete cycle. Yet no one could say that Pletnev's style is "typcially Russian" or typically anything else. He has thrown caution to the winds, following any whim that occurs to him. Since he has an original musical soul, the results are strange and wonderful, and totally unpredictable.

I am giving Pletnev's efforts five stars because the only alternative is to throw up my hands. There are times when the whole enterprise seems like an elaborate prank--witness the three different tempos that Pletnev applies to the first four bars of the Pastorale before deciding to race off at lightning speed, only to slam on the brakes thrity bars later. Balances are at times extremely different from the norm; there are sudden enormous slow downs, as in the Trio of the Eroica's Scherzo; Pletnev flirts with the lightness of the period movement, only to wallow the next moment in a voluptuous romanticism that would have made Mengelberg blush (only the wayward, brilliant Dutch conductor can be offered as a parallel). By comparison, Bernstien seems like the village priest.

As for a detailed review of each symphony, I'll leave that to others -- or to a later entry after I've absorbed this shockingly original set. But my first impression is one of exhilaration blended with total bafflement. What is this wild man doing to Beethoven? You'll have to give him a listen to find out.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Going boldly where no conductor has gone before. . . ., November 2, 2007

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Charles W. Batten (Conestoga, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies ~ Pletnev (Audio CD)

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I own over 35 sets of Beethoven symphonies and these sound like no others. I don't quite buy the explanations in the enclosed booklet as to why Pletnev interpreted these symphonies in this manner. Those "Pleasant, cheerful feelings awakened..." were squashed at breakneck speed in the Pastoral. These recordings are not all bad, though. The Russian National Orchestra is an excellent ensemble and they have many great moments here. It seems that Pletnev took it easy on the lesser known symphonies (1,2, &8) as these are pretty good. Even in the 4th and 7th, the conductor only took limited liberties with tempos. For the most part he let the classical-style symphonies remain classical. Except for a rather swift second movement, the Ninth is very good. As for the rest, you have to hear them to believe them. Tempo changes abound. It's definitely not your grandfather's Beethoven !!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking Liberties To Breathe Live Into Warhorses, January 6, 2008

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L. Wiviott (CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies ~ Pletnev (Audio CD)

Classical music performance by definition must balance the constraints of written score with the interprative vision of conductor and ensemble. Without question, Mr. Pletnev's Beethoven Symphonies stress this equation heavily to the latter. His tempi are varied, his sensibilities and sonorities unique. Yet like Janine Jansen's recent reworking of Vivaldi's Four Seasons for small ensemble Vivaldi: The Four Seasons - Janine Jansen the bold choices reinvigorate the transcendent timelessness, the soul stirring / wonder-inducing sense of inevitable truth that Beethoven's masterorks induce in this listener. I appreciate and admire the more conventional achievements of von Karajan, Sir Charles Mackerras, Simon Rattle, Roger Norrington and others but perhaps it took the jolt of Pletnev's radical conception to reawaken my more visceral response to these symphonies.

So while the purists will recoil (see James Leonard's review at All Music Guide) I will rejoice that there is still something fresh to be brought into these revered works, so that rather than a complacent nod of "yes, that's how it should be played" we can prick up our ears with re-engaged interest and acknowledge, "oh yes, that's how it can be played." Such is the bold spirit that keeps classics alive.