Customer Reviews

Beethoven: The Revolutionary

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wasn't there when Beethoven's 3d or 5th Symphonies were performed so I'll leave it to the experts to argue the fine points. For what it's worth, I am a great fan of "period instruments" which, by definition, makes me a great fan of J.E. Gardiner and his band the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. I also like Hogwood and the AAM. Hogwood's take on these symphonies is very different. He stresses the connection between Beethoven and Mozart. Hogwood's tempos are brisk but the sound is almost intimate. Gardiner's band clubs you on the head. His Beethoven is an all-out assault on one's musical sensibilities. For me it works. We are, after all, dealing with Beethoven and the 5th and 3d symphonies at that. If this isn't how they actually sounded, they should have. The recording is excellent and, as is often the case, the period instruments provide a wonderful clarity of sound. But this one will rattle the walls if you crank the volume. Highly recommended. But get Hogwood's too if a sweet uncle remembers you in his will. They are a wonderful contrast.

I saw Gardiner lead his orchestra in these two masterworks last week. Little has changedin the ensuing years and I fully agree with the comments by dv. Mostly superficial, if well played with good ensemble. Gardiner had me thinking of original instruments under his baton as a bit of a gimmick. He did at least wake up to lead a powerful rendition of the finale of the 5th. With regard to the inane liner notes by David Hurwitz, this ass has no business being taken seriously as a critic. His notes for this CD are sensible compared to something he wrote on his online site several years ago: that Bach and Handel would have favored abortion and a woman's right to choose. I kid you not. Actually there is a consistency between the two: both show Hurwitz does not respect classical music.

Read David Hurwitz's liner notes to this Beethoven release. Hurwitz has to go out of his way to make classical music sound all approachable, so in his typically "genius" critic mode, he compares Beethoven's 5th Symphony to George Lucas' Star Wars and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony to the Spielberg/Lucas blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark. I don't know why critics have to draw such lowbrow analogies across artistic mediums. I suppose to not scare off the average non-classical fan or something. It's all really ridiculous. By the way, I just saw Raiders of the Lost Ark again for the first time in several years. I must say this film is just as dopey and cartoonish as it ever was. But it's meant to be harmless fun, so why not, right? But where in David Hurwitz's brain does a harmless, fun summer popcorn movie run in parallel to an immortal musical masterwork like the Eroica Symphony? Looks like Hurwitz is puffing smoke out of his bootay again!

Moving on, the performances here under John Eliot Gardiner are as superficial as you could want, which probably means that yes, equating these recordings with Hollywood entertainment is not too far-fetched. Why do I give this CD four stars then? Out of all the period-instrument recordings of the Beethoven symphonies, Gardiner is by far and away the most interesting and gutsy conductor who has a very good orchestra under his command. There is no way I would ever listen to Gardiner conduct Beethoven in the concert hall. Last year I saw him live with his rendition of Mozart's C Minor Mass and the Requiem. The tiny, wimpy orchestra, the undersized choir was all too much and I was bored out of my mind. It was a disgrace to Mozart, but not from the lack of balance or thought, rather it was lacking in everything else. Emotion, warmth, power, sympathy? Forget it!

That's exactly how this recording of Beethoven's 3rd and 5th sounds. In the concert hall, this would be deadly, but on a home stereo, crank it up loud and have fun! The energy of this 5th is truly something, whatever it lacks in weight, it substitutes in wave after wave of attack. The finale under Gardiner is especially driven, with the climaxes brazen and full of flair. You'll enjoy this performance all the way through, with the quick as lighting first movement. The only part I didn't like was the extra repeat of the scherzo prescribed in the newer edition of the score. Since Gardiner takes the scherzo so breathlessly, you don't mind hearing it twice. The finale, like I said, is frantic fun all the way to the finish. This is a reading to enjoy as a change of pace but you'll want to come back to the famous Kleiber and Karajan versions which are far more insightful in the end.

The Eroica is a very different matter altogether, whereas Gardiner's view of the 5th has it's advantages, his interpretation of the Eroica lacks the titanic, heroic, world conquering breadth of vision that this music contains. Fast speeds are one thing, but lack of any discernable emotional depth in music of such vast reach and pathos is a major crime. If you desire a period-instrument Eroica, this is probably the one to have as it is miles removed from the pathetic Roger Norrington and his London Classical Players for instance. However, if you really care about this music, Gardiner's version simply will not satisfy as anything more than an alternate hearing. Stick to Toscanini, Furtwangler 1944, Karajan's versions on DG, especially the digital Karajan Gold, plus Szell and Bernstein on Sony. All those are far more involving and penetrating. Those conductors actually seem to care about this great symphony. Gardiner loves speed and nothing much else. Regardless, four out of five stars because this is as good as period-instrument performances ever got.

My amazon friend Art Centurion has written a splendid review of this performance, posted today May 14th, and with it a very clear and concise explanation, in the form of a comment, of the Eroica symphony's musical structure. We are hoping to have an exciting discussion of this performance, via comments attached to Art's review, and we invite all courteous amazonians to join us. Knowledge of musical theory is not necessary.

A very dynamic recording of the two famous pieces, performed on period instruments. The liner notes go a bit overboard in the "revolutionary" rhetoric, but never mind all that - this is a great disc with fresh, inspiring readings of two warhorses of the classical repetoire.

This is a great recording in that it recreates the symphonies exactly as Beethoven would have heard them (on period instruments).

Also the interpretations are quite good.

However, I think something is lost in the period performacne here. Especially in the volume reduction of the strings due to performance on gut strings verses wire. In most of the tuttie sections, lines in the strings are lost due to the dullness of the gut string. We're used to hearing them pierce through on a wire string. This isn't bothersome at all in the slow movements, but it tends to be quite unbalanced at the big sections of the 5th.

Usually I am a fan of performance practice. I think it's essential in Bach. However, Beethoven was a person who was looking forward. He wasn't writing for the musicians, he was simply writing what came out of his head.

That is the big difference between a composer like Bach and Beethoven. Bach needed to write for the ensemble he had in front of him or available at a church.

While this is a wonderful performance by both forces (Gardiner and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique), I feel it lacks a certain level of "greatness" because of the balance problems.

Gardiner's reading of the Fifth is quite original but it is too fast and cannot match at all previous recoridngs of this symphony (Toscanini, Furtwängler, Kleiber, and the others). The main (the most important feature of the symphony) theme or the introduction does not come up distinctly because he conducts it too fast for jumping to the first development of the first movement. The theme is no longer recognized. The advantage is that it is conducted with period instruments.
The Third, I think, is better performed. It sounds more "revolutionary" than previous recordings.