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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Beethoven we've been waiting for., September 15, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Beethoven: Symphonies; Piano Concertos; Violin Concertos; Overtures [Box Set] (Audio CD)
For many listeners whose ears have been jaded by the authentic style movement (Harnoncourt, Gardiner, Norrington), this set may come as a shock. These are big, wooly, luxurious performances the way Beethoven used to be played (and still should!) by musicians who knew the style perfectly. This is great, great Beethoven playing and conducting. The recorded sound is superb and puts many newer digital editions to shame. You'll hear some carping about the shallow performances of the concertos; don't believe them. You'll also read some grumbling about the slow pace of the first two symphonies. Wrong again. Tempos are perfectly judged. This is an awesome set, and for many will the be the only recordings of these masterworks they'll ever want, or need. Ones thing's for sure: we'll never encounter music making of this magnitude again. So for me, this goes to the head of the class: Schmidt-Isserstedt, Cluytens, Karajan (EMI), Szell, Klemperer, Walter. From there on down...who cares?
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Performances of Beethoven, September 10, 2002
This review is from: Beethoven: Symphonies; Piano Concertos; Violin Concertos; Overtures [Box Set] (Audio CD)
The ninth has been my favorite for 10 years. I have been wanting to hear the rest since then. Now they are available, and sound better than some previous CD incarnations of these performances (I heard the 9th on a UK made Decca CD prior to buying this set). The performances are played with attention to orchestral balance, dynamics, and are not eccentric. My favorite performances are the 9th, 3rd, 4th, and 8th. These performances compare well with Szell/Cleveland on Sony (Anotherwords as good as Szell). I did prefer Szell in number 5, 6, and 7 by a slim margin, but Isserstedt is preferable for the other symphonies (1-4, 8, 9). Isserstedt is my favorite Beethoven set, although I will not give up Szell, Bernstein, Karajan (1962). Overtures are marvels, wonderfuly played. The piano concertos are good too, though the sound is a little older. Violin concerto is great too. Decca made a smart move by issuing this set, and calling them Wonderful Beethoven perfomances in their writeup when it got put up on the deccaclassics.com website in May 2001. If you like Beethoven played with good orchestral balance and with a classical style, I would suggest you buy this set as soon as possible.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Schmidt-Isserstedt's Legendary Beethoven on CD, September 13, 2005
This review is from: Beethoven: Symphonies; Piano Concertos; Violin Concertos; Overtures [Box Set] (Audio CD)
I knew Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (1900-1973). The complete CD release of this 1965-69 symphony cycle was long awaited by those of us old enough to have bought the original Decca LPs in first issue, and particularly by those of us fortunate enough to have heard Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt in concerts. Schmidt-Isserstedt founded Hamburg's North German Radio Orchestra; he was one of those conductors who were legends in Europe (including Scherchen, Abendroth, Rosbaud, Knappertsbusch, Kletzki, Horenstein, etc.) but little-known in the commercial major-label superstar US market of that time. The specifics of Schmidt-Isserstedt's convincing interpretations recorded here are not as important as the sobering & saddening realization that very few have conducted Beethoven in this traditional way - and at such a high level - in the past thirty years. To our ears today, Schmidt-Isserstedt's recordings may be more expansive in pace and richer in texture of sound than we're accustomed to (he told me that the Weingartner book had a decisive influence on his approach to Beethoven, in common with many conductors of his generation). Younger listeners who care only about the mere sounds of musicologically authentic performance may simply not "get it". Yet there are many reasons why the previous generation of Beethoven lovers placed Schmidt-Isserstedt's insightful readings alongside those by the greatest historical giant interpreters (Walter, Furtwaengler, Klemperer, etc.). These recordings were produced by Schmidt-Isserstedt's son Erik Smith, pianist and harpsichordist as well as record producer for Decca and Philips, who lived in England from the 1930's until his death in 2004.
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