Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Symphonies No. 5 & No. 7

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I already owned a half dozen performances of LVB's 5th and 7th symphonies by some acclaimed conductors and think Zander's performances of each symphony rate with Carlos Kleiber as the best performances I've heard; sound on this disc is easily superior to the early 70's DG Originals disc by Kleiber.

This recording is worth purchasing for the commentary disc alone, which is fascinating; Zander discusses the symphonies movement by movement (with excerpts of the music to illustrate his points) and the reasons for his "controversial" decision to adhere to the tempo markings Beethoven wrote in his scores. I find his arguments to be completely persuasive: after all, the same conductors who claim that Beethoven's tempo markings are too fast in places such as the first movement of the 5th (allegedly due to a faulty metronome) turn around and conduct the music FASTER than Beethoven's marked tempos in other movements when it suits their fancy.

I'm looking forward to Zander's completion of the Beethoven symphonies (have read elsewhere that Telarc committed to the entire set) and hope Telarc continues to include explanation discs from Zander. I'd love to see this concept carried over to more recordings. Congratulations and thanks to Zander and Telarc!

Zander somehow has been hiding from us all these years. He is plainly one of the conducting giants of our time. I have not yet heard enough of his recordings to say more than that, but if he keeps making me gasp for breath as he unfolds music afresh that I thought, after many,many hearings, I already knew, I shall have to heap even greater praise on him than I do today.

Foremost, be warned: Zander follows Bethoven's own metronome markings -- the speeds at which he wanted his works played -- with precision. As a result, much of what you will may sound hurried at first, and in some cases less weighty (though this is rare). You also will hear voices in the music that, for whatever reason, other conductors have deemphasized -- almost hidden -- for the sake of stressing something else that they (and we) are used to hearing.

Very soon, you will wonder what on earth other conductors have been doing all these years ignoring Beethoven's instructions as to tempo and burying various of the parts -- warping and changing what the Master wrote and how he wanted his works to sound. It is an astounding experience. A revelation!

How many times have each of us heard Beethoven's Fifth Symphony -- often referred to now a "war horse"? Fifty times? A hundred? And how many different performances under the batons of how many different conductors -- or the same conductor but with two or three different orchestras? Well, take a chair before trying this one. It will come near to making you forget all the others you've heard before.

The performance of the Seventh is equally stunning and affecting, but that is music not quite so ingrained in our psyches (mine at least) as the Fifth. It is more complex, difficult music -- harder to hold entirely in one's head. Still,in every movement there are things I have never heard the same way in anyone else's approach.

This is a must. Don't delay. Get it now.

I bought this on the recommendation of reviews here and elsewhere, and am VERY pleased with it. The performance is first rate, and the sound quality is quite good but not great. (One reviewer described the sound quality as "opaque", and I concur, else I would have given it five stars.) The companion disc is worth the price of the set, and one need not be a Music Theory Major to understand Zander's analysis. Just a warning, though, after becoming accustomed to Zander's quicker tempo - which, if you agree with his analysis, is actually Beethoven's original tempo - it will be hard to listen to other, slower performances without wondering what these other conductors were thinking ... or doing.

Here's something a little different and a bit off the wall, but bear with me. I'm going to compare this recording of the Beethoven 5th with Zinman's Arte Nova recording. I hope that makes at least a little bit of sense.

I had fun comparing these two recordings, but in so doing, I just about drove my poor wife right over the top. On the afternoon that I sat down to take my final notes, I put both recordings on and then proceeded to switch back and forth between them, sometimes stopping everything to synchronize between the two renditions, sometimes going back to compare particular passages several times, flipping back and forth between them.

I found it a truly rewarding and entertaining experience to listen to the same passages back and forth, back and forth, but for my long-suffering wife, sitting in another room, the musical chaos was simply too much for her frayed nerves to bear. After asking me what on earth I was doing, and letting me know that it was good for her mental health that I was done doing it, she did say that they were certainly rousing renditions of Beethoven I had been playing. (Needless to say, I don't think she really meant it as a compliment at the time, but looking back on her remark, I think it is telling that she recognized the unique energy contained in these two performances.)

When I first heard the Zinman recording, I was immediately taken by its brash exuberance. From the opening notes, you know that this is a performance that just moves right along.

A year or so later, along comes the Zander rendition, with an even faster performance! Wow!

Let's look at some specific timings. Zinman takes the opening movement in a bracing 6:49, while Zander clocks in at an even more bracing 6:23. In the second movement, the difference is negligible--8:45 for Zinman, 8:43 for Zander. The biggest difference is in the third movement, where Zinman clocks in at 7:19, much longer than Zander's 4:21. No, there is not that much difference in tempo; rather, Zinman takes a repeat that Zander ignores (more about this in a moment). In the final movement, things are again quite close in timing, with Zinman at 10:25 and Zander at 10:40.

Both performances are indeed rousing, and both are jolly good fun to listen to. In terms of musical excitement, you can't go wrong with either one. I found that I prefer the shorter third movement of Zander, but I can imagine others who would feel that they are missing something by not hearing the repeated measures in the Zinman performance. Given Zander's stated intention of sicking precisely to Beethoven's metronome markings, and Zinman's intention or use the best available version of the score, I wondered why one conductor would repeat some measures and the other not. I checked with a representative from Telarc, who said that according to Maestro Zander, the repeat is simply not in the original score--it is taken just as a tradition. Zander also said that he himself has performed the movement with the repeat, but for this recording, chose not to take it.

Returning to these recordings, my judgment is that I would give a slight performance nod to Zander, but I must also say that I still love Zinman's performance, too. I put both of these performances in the same exalted category as that of Carlos Kleiber with the Vienna Philharmonic on DG--these three performances set the standard in the Beethoven 5th.

In terms of sound quality, both recordings are excellent. The Zinman is the slightly more distant recording, and it is recorded with more reverberation from the hall. The Zander is recorded from a closer perspective, but seems to have more illusion of depth. Both recordings serve the music quite well, but if I had to choose between the two based on sound quality alone, I would give a slight nod to the Telarc sound (Tony Faulkner was the engineer).

In terms of couplings, the Zinman CD comes with a good recording of Beethoven's 6th, while the Zander release couples the 5th with the 7th on one disk and includes a bonus disk that features Zander lecturing on Beethoven, with particular emphasis on Beethoven's metronome markings. Listening to the bonus disk is a fascinating and educational experience, and I salute Telarc and Maestro Zander for making this available.

Unless you are one of Don King's ringside judges, your scorecard for my comparison should have Zander the winner. But the Zinman disk is a great one, too, and at around five bucks, a heck of a bargain. Actually, my advice would be to buy both these disks, decide which one you like the best, and give the other to a friend who is just getting into classical music.

Having grown up an avid fan of Bernstein's Young People's Concerts I was thrilled when I ran into this recording. The music is fabulous and the "lectures" are fascinating, edifying and very understandable. Everyone I've played this for agrees and wants their own copy.

I bought this CD to hear what Ben Zander had to say about the two symphonies recorded (it comes with a free cd of him discussing the symphonies). It is quite interesting to hear the tempos he brings to two of Beethoven's most famous symphonies. The sound is great on these recordings (as I have come to expect from Telarc), but I don't know what I think of the interpretations yet. They are quite different from what we have become used to (i.e. Karajan, Furtwangler), but they do offer a new and curious insight to Beethoven. I'd recommend this recording so you can have a different experience of Beethoven.

These performances of Beethoven's symphonies are definitely different that what we've heard for many years. The first time I heard them I was taken back and appalled, but they grow on you. And after listening a few times you start to hear how good the symphonies sound at Beethoven's tempo markings. Zander also does an excellent job in discussing the symphonies. An excellent buy.

I heard his performance of Beethoven 5 on NPR and HAD to purchase it. The tempos (Beethoven's metronome markings) were hot and the performance was full of angry HUMOR, which always comes as a surprise to me. Though he doesn't take the crazy-wonderful dynamics choices that Szell does, this is a CD with two of my favorite Beethoven Symphonies, crisply and furiously performed, with a BONUS CD of Zander discussing Beethoven, tempi and Beethoven's relationship with the newly-invented (at his time) metronome.

This recording, as everyone points out, is much closer to what Beethoven had in mind when he wrote it. But more than that, it is exciting music! Play this for some rap-infested kid and watch him get excited. This makes Beethoven much more appealing because it is probably closer to the rebellious feeling he intended rather than the grave version we have always heard (DADADADUUUUUUM). This moves and shakes. I have his Mahler 9th and it is great too. Zander is recording the whole Beethoven symphony set under Telarc. I can hardly wait!

As usual the most interesting feature of this recording is the bonus commentary CD, which is devoted mostly to observance of tempi. I found the Maestro's observations quite persuasive, but found the singing and vocalizing a bit distracting. The actual performances have something in common with Carlos Kleiber's famous CD of these works - and ironically Maestro Zander considered him at the time this CD was released to be the greatest living conductor. For those not expecting the 5th to be played quickly, at times very quickly, this may seem overaggressive, but it follows the composer's wishes. The last movement of the 7th is taken slower than many other performances - again as marked - and I find the music's structure is heard to better effect as a result, without loss of excitement. The sound quality, orchestral playing and documentation are all well done.