Beethoven: Symphonies No. 1 & 2 [Import]

Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Günter Wand (Conductor), NDR Orchestra (Orchestra), NDR Symphony Orchestra (Hamburg) (Orchestra), Gunter Wand (Artist), NDR-Sinfonieorchester (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: NDR Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra (Hamburg)
• Conductor: Günter Wand
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (August 21, 2001)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: RCA Victor Europe
• ASIN: B00004NHID
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #462,303 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb live performance, November 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Beethoven: Symphonies No. 1 & 2 (Audio CD)

Listen to this recording and you will know that you have been enlightened. To listen to Wand conduct is to listen to the wise and the learned. The music comes out effortlessly and shines through without hesitation. You hear passages and phrases beautifully shaped and well played by the NDR. The 1st movement is well played and well articulated. The 4th movement is forceful and propels to the end marvellously.

Listen carefully to the 4th movement of the second symphony and towards the end you will note a hint of familiarity(?) of a comedy. The playfulness and alertness is refreshing and is one which I have not heard in years.

Throughout the 2nd and 3rd movements are beatifully played.

Add to that, this being a live recording delivers all the thrill and atmosphere to make this THE CD to own for Symp Nos 1 and 2 apart from John Eliot Gardiner's which is played on period instruments.

Lastly the music is brought to front in that it shines out and this is Beethoven being played truthfully.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gunter is just as Good if not Better!, January 8, 2003

By 

Zhivago - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beethoven: Symphonies No. 1 & 2 (Audio CD)

My God, was this recording magnificent!

When I first picked this CD up I was skeptical, I've never heard of somebody named Gunter Wand, nor the NDR Symphonyorchestra and ....the price seemed a tad high. However, the red RCA tag assured me that it won't be too bad of a recording, so I bought it nevertheless.

Eager to hear how Mr. Wand sounds, I immediately placed the CD in my portable CD player when I got out of the store (I didn't buy it from Amazon.com :( ), and it moved me right from the start! The tempo of the 1st movement seemed just Perfect (Karajan's was a tad slow) and the sound was brilliant (it was recorded in 2001). I kept listening, and noticed how truly graceful some passages were performed by the NDR. It truly brought out the best of Symphony No.1 and 2 of Beethoven: the Mozartian grace, the hint of Romanticism and sheer energy in them.

To be honest, back in the "Karajan Days" I would usually get bored with the 2nd movement of the 1st symphony and 2nd symphony. But not with Mr. Wand and the NDR! Oh no, it was moving and filled with emotions, very powerful.

Greatest Recommandations for anyone who loves music.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wand is careful and modest in live Beethoven, June 30, 2006

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Beethoven: Symphonies No. 1 & 2 (Audio CD)

Gunter Wand believed fervently in keeping a low musical profile. He revered the classic composers and would never insult them by intruding his own interpretations. There's another form of reverence, of course, which involves giving your heart and soul to an interpretation, but he wasn't of that school. If you like Wand's humility, these well played, sincere readings in live concert from Hamburg are very pleasant.

Wand is understated in Beethoven's Sym. #1 and 2, playing them for Haydnesque lightness and a lilting gait. The best thing for me is the recorded sound, placing us right next to the podium and catching every bit of inner detail. As to style, Wand was a traditionalist, so all the tempos and phrasing is strictly middle of the road. There's a bit of slacking off in the scherzo of Sym. #1, and nothing special happens in any ohter movement. Sym. #2 fares better, with a lovely flowing account of the ineffable Larghetto and good balances throughout.

But I don't want to hide in the bushes. Pleasant as these readings are, they don't hold a candle to Walter, Karajan, Bernstein, Klemperer, Abbado, Rattle, or half a dozen other conductors who are far beyond Wand's league. I realize that a coterie of critics has decided to lift him up to their heights, but nothing here persudes me that they are right.