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Naxos 8.110861 (5 & 6) [62:01] budget price
Naxos 8.110862  (7 & 8) budget price

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphonies nos. 5 and 6

British Symphony Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphonies nos. 7 and 8

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Felix Weingartner
 

 


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Which is your favourite Beethoven symphony?
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No.9
 

 



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Kronos Caravan

 

In the shenanigans of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony, Felix Weingartner strikes gold, with a performance of spontaneity and momentum all the more remarkable for arising out of lucid logical argument. Some of this must be attributed to the fact that the Eighth is a far more concise utterance than the two symphonies preceding it and thus plays to Weingartner’s strengths as a logician. It also doesn’t hurt that humor in music, far more than rhetoric, drama or lyricism, benefits from being played with a relatively straight face. The Vienna Philharmonic is with Weingartner every inch of the way, responding at last with the requisite vitality.

If only the other symphonies on these discs fared as well. Alas, they do not – all the sadder since intellectually, Weingartner proves to be a master of the Fifth Symphony’s treacherous architecture: amongst his generation of conductors, he alone perceives that it is the first movement’s odd bars, not its even bars, which are the strong ones. Weingartner’s strong beat is on the silent rest which begins the movement—clearly of more incisive logic than the tendency of a Furtwängler or Toscanini to fall heavily on the E flat, rendering the first and third bars harmonically suspect.

This Beethoven Fifth fares better as a conception than as a performance. It requires not only logic and intellect but fire and passion as well. Compare the codas of the finales of Weingartner and Furtwängler (1942). Weingartner’s has impeccable taste but little verve. Furtwängler’s accelerandi sound outrageously swift and he lets ensemble hang by a thread, but the effect is transcendental. The British Symphony Orchestra’s poor ensemble and overall playing doesn’t help.

The Sixth, recorded with the London Philharmonic in 1927, is a surprisingly modern performance, with swift tempi and an emphasis on clear textures that precede Toscanini and Erich Kleiber by at least ten years. Along with his customary lucidity Weingartner supplies more flair and coaxes better playing from the orchestra, but he cannot shake off the aura of routine. Like the Fifth it commands a woefully small range of dynamics and displays a po-faced refusal to savor its phrases. The first point is not so important in this symphony. The second is a death knell. Surely this lyrical and picturesque work demands a lyrical and picturesque interpretation. More ‘granitic’ performances have occasionally succeeded—Klemperer’s—but clipped efficiency, which seems to be Weingartner’s modus operandi, has never done well.

Like Weingartner’s Fifth, his Seventh is a performance in which considerations of taste are allowed to override imaginative vitality. The Seventh is arguably the most conductor-proof of these four symphonies, but Weingartner outdoes himself in the plodding way he fashions the vivace section of his first movement, sapping the music of any rhythmic verve to which it aspires. It is not so much sheer speed that is the issue as it is the uncharacteristic sloppiness of the rhythm. Unlike Weingartner’s Fifth, his Seventh does not have the excuse of a poor orchestra with the Vienna Philharmonic under his helm. Yet it, too, seems beset by routine: there is a palpable reluctance to muster anything anywhere near a half-decent fortissimo at key moments.

The filler items on both CDs, unfortunately, do not reveal much more about Weingartner as an interpreter. The incidental music to Egmont receives a uniformly workmanlike performance. It is fun to see Beethoven letting his hair down in the eleven Viennese dances, and the performances are considerably less stern than their symphonic companions, but the dances themselves are all pretty much alike and do not allow Weingartner enough scope to showcase his talents in lighter music.

Weingartner’s grasp of structural logic is always formidable, but the lackluster execution of most of these performances poses a formidable obstruction to enjoyment. He seems a greater conductor in premise than in practice—too bad since his Eighth Symphony fared so well. But potential buyers will have to ask themselves whether even at Naxos’ low cost, one motivated performance is worth the price of three uninspired ones.
 


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Reader's Comments


From: H.B.A.Wise. (hilariuscrichel@aol.com / Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 03:39:20)

I am surprized at the rather savage attack on Weingartner's performances of Beethoven's symphonies and particularly on the 7th. He said himself that critics thought he took that music too quickly but answered that he made sure that every player in the orchestra played his notes at the right time. To me the seventh is a splendid perfomance. His Eroica never drags unlike interpretations of other conductors while his ninth is exciting. Apart from Beethoven, who has bettered Weingartner's magical perfomance of the third symphony of Brahms ? Lastly, if you really want a gripping piece of his command and control of the music, just listen to his recording ( if you can find one ) of the March from Berlioz's The Trojans. It is in its way almost frightening.

From: phillip sorensen (phillip.sorensen@btinternet.com / Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 05:46:04)

I agree that the original review undervalues Weingartner's recordings of the symphonies in question. The starting point should be that the 8th with the VPO is the greatest recording of the symphony that is extant. That puts the only slightly less outstanding 7th in context. Who else conducts the poco sostenuto introduction to the first movement at the right swift tempo (certainly not Toscanini)? Even though the 5th and 6th (Pastoral) were hampered by inferior orchestras they are still enjoyable performances and to put this Pastoral in context it is by my calculation the first ever complete recording of this symphony, an earlier acoustic performance of it in 1924 having been abandoned after the first two movements when electrical recording arrived in 1925. Neverntheless, I would like to hear those first two movements for purposes of comparison if they are preserved anywhere.




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      Readers' Comments
From: H.B.A.Wise. (hilariuscrichel@aol.com / Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 03:39:20)

I am surprized at the rather savage attack on Weingartner's performances of Beethoven's symphonies and particularly on the 7th. He said himself that critics thought he took that music too quickly but answered that he made sure that every player in the orchestra played his notes at the right time. To me the seventh is a splendid perfomance. His Eroica never drags unlike interpretations of other conductors while his ninth is exciting. Apart from Beethoven, who has bettered Weingartner's magical perfomance of the third symphony of Brahms ? Lastly, if you really want a gripping piece of his command and control of the music, just listen to his recording ( if you can find one ) of the March from Berlioz's The Trojans. It is in its way almost frightening.

From: phillip sorensen (phillip.sorensen@btinternet.com / Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 05:46:04)

I agree that the original review undervalues Weingartner's recordings of the symphonies in question. The starting point should be that the 8th with the VPO is the greatest recording of the symphony that is extant. That puts the only slightly less outstanding 7th in context. Who else conducts the poco sostenuto introduction to the first movement at the right swift tempo (certainly not Toscanini)? Even though the 5th and 6th (Pastoral) were hampered by inferior orchestras they are still enjoyable performances and to put this Pastoral in context it is by my calculation the first ever complete recording of this symphony, an earlier acoustic performance of it in 1924 having been abandoned after the first two movements when electrical recording arrived in 1925. Neverntheless, I would like to hear those first two movements for purposes of comparison if they are preserved anywhere.