Ludwig Van Beethoven Münchner Philharmoniker The Nine Symphonies

After their prize-winning Mendelssohn symphonies cycle and acclaimed Mozart symphonies album, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and its chief conductor Andrew Manze now present Beethovens Fifth and Seventh symphonies. While Beethovens Fifth is arguably the most famous symphony in the history of music, the Seventh counts as one of the most rhythmically-advanced pieces of nineteenth-century music; an apotheosis of dance, to quote Richard Wagner. Both works display Beethovens mastery of and audacious approach to musical form as well as the richness of his melodic invention, and are generally praised as paragons of symphonic composition. Andrew Manze brings his experience in the field of historically informed performance to the polished symphonic sound of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, providing an ambience that fits these early nineteenth-century works like a glove.

For this set of Beethoven's first five symphonies, Jordi Savall began with the fundamental idea of recovering the original sound of the orchestra and tempo as the composer imagined them. All the orchestral work was performed with instruments corresponding to those used at the time, and by 55-60 musicians, a number similar to that arranged by the composer. 35 players were selected from Le Concert des Nations alongside 20 young musicians from different countries across world. The main goal was to reflect, in our 21st century, all the richness and beauty of these symphonies, through a true balance between colors and the quality of the orchestra's natural sound.

For anyone who is a devotee of Otto Klemperer’s readings of the Beethoven Symphonies, they will not be disappointed with much of what is on offer here. In the main, these are weighty and highly-charged performances, with a certain grandeur…Horst gives us monumental, full-blooded and noble readings of these symphonies.

Bruno Walter was always a most persuasive advocate of the gentler Beethoven–at least, that's what everyone thought until his stereo Beethoven cycle was remastered onto CD, revealing a much stronger musical profile than had been suspected. But that just made the cycle's best performances sound better still–and here they are, together on one midpriced CD! It's amazing that a man in his 80s, as Walter was when these performances were recorded, could take what was essentially a pickup orchestra and turn in performances of such power and authority. Walter and the Columbia Symphony had a genuine chemistry between them–they play these two symphonies as if they had been making music together for years.

There's a tendency on the part of some performers to play Beethoven's First and Second Piano Concertos as if they were really by Mozart–all elegance, poise, and refinement. Happily, Boris Berezovsky finds the Beethovenian fire burning beneath the Mozartian surface. Right from his vibrant entrance in Concerto No. 1, Berezovsky plays with fierce energy (despite his generally light touch) and a clearly discernible enjoyment. This is matched Thomas Dausgaard's equally electric reading of the orchestral part, which in many ways reminds me of the classic Szell/Fleisher recording. Of course the small-scale sound of the 38-member Swedish Chamber Orchestra cannot possibly equal the full sonority of the Cleveland Orchestra in its heyday, but it's remarkable how Szell's clear textures and crisp articulation match Dausgaard's, who, by the way, is using the new Barenreiter editions. Berezovsky seems to be of like mind with Fleisher, at least terms of his singing tone and mercurial style.

Jan Caeyers is a Belgian conductor, musicologist, Beethoven expert and biographer. His passion for Viennese classical music, and Beethoven in particular, has resulted in a long history of conducting in European concert halls.

Conductor Philippe Herreweghe returns to the helm of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic for another set of Beethoven symphonies on the PentaTone label, this time the First and Third. Again presented as a multi-channel SACD hybrid disc, PentaTone's sound is clean and detailed without too much digital sterility. Unlike the album that included the Fifth Symphony and was fraught with many rhythmic peculiarities, Herreweghe's reading of the First and Third symphonies seems diligently respectful to every nuance of the score.