Beethoven Symphonies

[Surlethe]

Starting three weeks ago and continuing to a week ago yesterday, Performance Today has been playing a Beethoven Symphony every day in chronological sequence. The symphonies were played this past season by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, under Christoph Eschenbach. Generously, the PSO has licensed all the symphonies to Performance Today for an entire year, and they're free for streaming on the program's website.

I haven't listened to all of them, and I'm not familiar with all the different interpretations of Beethoven, but I've been impressed nonetheless with Eschenbach's interpretation of the symphonies; I enjoy how he exaggerates the dynamics and tempo changes to emphasize what's going on in the music. I only wish his base tempi were a little more extreme -- fast movements faster and slow movements slower -- but overall, from what I've listened to so far (3, 5, 9), he seems to be conveying the grand scale of Beethoven's work very nicely.

[Thanas]

Thanks for the link, Surlethe.

Beeing a native from northern Germany myself, I have had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Eschenbach when he was principal conductor of the NDR SO. I am also a huge fan of Conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler and Daniel Barenboim and I dislike Karajan, except for his recordings up to 1963.

I started listening with the 4th symphony, not because of any special reason but because I simply felt like it. Overall, I enjoyed the playing. It was good, but definitely not one of my favorites.

Here are the reasons why:

The sound quality was good (there was some coughing in the background but I didn't mind).

First movement: In my opinion, Eschenbach starts too slow, thereby not conveying the tension which eventually changes into joyous tunes.
For example, he makes one long break directly between that important transition between the first movement's introduction and the allegro at about 3:12, which is in my opinion way too slow. Compare this to Barenboims interpretation with the Staatskapelle Berlin, which has only a split-second break between those elements, (or Furtwängler who takes a two second break but has a much faster tempo than both Barenboim or Beethoven) thereby managing to convey both the tension and the incredible joy. Eschebach takes a long four second break (3:04-3:08) and therefore looses the momentum. While Barenboim has finished that piece of the first movement at about 2:59, Eschenbach drags it out to 3:15, which is way too long in my opinion. Eschenbach nevertheless manages to finish the movement at 12:02, which is on par with Barenboim but still much longer than Furtwängler took (10:39).

This is the same problem which echoes through the whole piece - the fourth symphony is simply played way too dragging in my opinion. Well, dragging is probably a bad expression for it, since Barenboim takes more time (36:02 vs. Eschenabchs 33:51), but I can't find any other word for it. In German, I would describe it as zurückhaltend, nicht eintauchend genug (held back, and not enough immersion factor)

The same problem is repeated in the following movements and in the finale. They sound tamed. Take for example the segment from 23:00- 24:50, or the final sequence from 32:52 onwards. It is just played, not conveying great emotions, or any enthusiasm. While it may be argued that Barenboims finale is somewhat short (6:57 compared to 7:32 by Furtwängler), it gets its point across, erupting like a vulcano. Eschenbach lacks that quality.

And that is basically my main problem with this performance - while the Orchestra plays well, the performance of the fourth symphony lacks emotion, compared to the performance of the Staatskapelle.

Barenboim manages to spend two more minutes than Eschenbach, but nevertheless his performance sounds more alive and faster than Eschenbachs. Maybe the Staatskapelle is just the better orchestra, maybe Barenboim is the better conductor for this piecce. (While I enjoy Furtwänglers recording as well, I am of the opinion he did not give his best when conducting the "classical" Beethoven symphonies.)

Nevertheless, it is a good performance of the 4th symphony and I was delighted to find it for free online. I will listen to the 3rd, 5th or 9th symphony next.

[YT300000]

Very nice, although my favorite version is still what Carlos Kleiber put together with the Vienna Philharmonic, especially their handling of the 5th Symphony.