First, some practical points. Such is the dramatic improvement in modern technology over the past ten years that this digitally remastered set takes six LPs as opposed to the original nine. True, a number of the overtures have had to be sacrificed in the process, including a splendid Consecration of the House and the first two Leonore Overtures. There is a slight but insignificant difference in the layout of the works on LP and CD. The order of the first two symphonies is reversed on LP, the Second Symphony spilling over to the second side. The Egmont Overture precedes the Pastoral symphony on LP, Coriolan and Fidelio following it on Side 2, while the CD places all the overtures after the symphony. Although the Gramophone Compact Disc Guide and Catalogue lists an abundant choice among the Beethoven symphonies (there are no fewer than 11 Ninths), there are only two alternative complete sets: the Berlin Staatskapelle under Othmar Suitner, also accommodated on six discs (Denon C37-7251/6), and the Dresden Philharmonic under Kegel on seven Capriccio discs (10001/5, oas; 10006/7, nas). One factor between LP and CD is, of course, their relative price: the six LPs are immaculate pressings and are competitive at roughly less than three pounds a record, while the six Compact Discs will be sold for the cost of five.
The original set of nine records always struck me as being excellent in terms of recorded sound, but the digital remastering to which the Philips engineers have subjected them has produced what I am tempted to call a spectacular improvement. Indeed, as sound these recordings, all made between 1972 and 1974, can hold their own against those of far more recent provenance. I listened to part of the Second Symphony alongside the recent Karajan/DG set on CD (415 505-2gh, 10/85), and can report that this does not sound inferior. (It is interesting to observe that pitch in Berlin is sharper than in Leipzig in the early 1970s.) The merits of the performances are well known: when they first appeared I was reminded of Peter Stadlen's felicitous description of Weingartner's Sunday morning ''lean-beef'' Beethoven concerts in pre-war Vienna, for their eloquence seems completely natural. I like the homogeneous, cultured sound of the Gewandhaus orchestra, its rhythmic resilience and vitality, and the natural perspective and warm acoustic ambience. Some performances are better than others: the Eroica strikes me as about the best. It and the Fourth stand the test of time very well. Masur's readings are eminently sane and often very perceptive—only the Pastoral strikes me now as being less compelling than, say, the LP reissue of Erich Kleiber's account with the Concertgebouw (Decca France), which I happen to have played recently. Although it would have been no hardship to play all the Masur again in both disc formats, I have only had time to sample them. The refurbished LPs sound as if they were made yesterday, while the Compact Disc format has a very impressive range and definition. For a reader starting a CD collection, this would make a very safe recommendation, and though, of course, not all these interpretations are of equal distinction, the playing of the Gewandhaus orchestra never falls significantly short of excellence.'