Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral"

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

 

 

In the early stereo era American critics swore by Bruno Walter's account of Beethoven's 'Pastorale' Sym. for Columbia, while their British counterparts favored this 1957 Klemperer recording on EMI. Something in Walter's spirit clicked so perfectly with the Sixth that his account is unique, but this is a flowing, sometimes slow, surprisingly gentle account from Klemperer. Comentators keep parroting the same adjectives (granitic, rock-like, solid, serious) to describe his conducting style, but Klemperer wasn't so monochromatic. He finds a great deal of color in every movement.

If you're accustomed to the old-fashioned way of playing the Beethoven Sixth, Klemperer's first and second movement won't sound as stately as they must to younger listeners. Balance and detail are lovely. I don't like how he slows down the Scherzo, misisng all the humor and hardly giving us a jolly rustic dance. The storm movement is a bit underplayed, too, but the sublime hymn-like theme in the finale is beautifuly phrased, as is the whole movement.

The fillers are almost the best thing in this reissue. We get three overtures--Prometheus, Egmont, and Coriolan--done in a weighty heroic styl. No one was better at it than Klemperer. In addition there are three incidental numbers from Egmont, including two brilliantly sung arias by the young Birgit Nilsson. The sonics for the CD are the latest from EMI but not an advance over the previous 'Klemperer Legacy' series.

EMI has gotten more mileage with reissues than any other classical label. Sure they have the greatest archive of recordings in the history of music sitting in their vaults, but how many times do they have to reissue the very same performances on CD? This slowly paced yet brilliantly insightful 1957 stereo account of Beethoven's 6th Symphony (and three Overtures), by Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia Orchestra, has seen nearly a half-dozen CD incarnations, if you count its inclusion on box sets. If you own these recordings via the "Klemperer Legacy" series (the 6th was coupled with the 1st Symphony, and the three Overtures were tacked on with the 8th), there is no need to "upgrade." The sound is identical to the Legacy set as they were both remastered using the same technology. If you are a real fan of Old Klemp's Beethoven performances, you should pass on the single titles anyway, and head straight for the EMI box set which combines all of the Symphonies with the Piano Concertos (featuring Daniel Barenboim as soloist). In all, this is certainly a five-star performance, but EMI gets a one-star deduction for continually putting a new face on the same classic product.

Famous readings include Bohm, Walter. However, Klemperer here produced what I imagine the sound and spirit that the composer wants, the last movement is particular fine. No reservations.

No stranger to contraversey, Herr Klemperer creates quite a stir with this superlative rendering of Beethoven's pastoral hymn. What some technocrats find objectionable here is what ought to be admired most: Klemp's reverential "Scene by the Brook", and his iconoclastic third movement - a lander and not a sprint to the storm, as most others would have it. After hearing this recording, no other seems to suffice. If Beethoven had wanted a faster third movement, than strike me down but it appears that we must yield the point to Otto Klemperer. He was the finest Beethoven interpreter of his generation and a survives as a revelation to all of us who think they have exhausted the potentialities of Ludwig van Beethoven.